The Prophecy of Minecraftia
by MechanixAngel
Summary: As the world crumbles around Alex Glowstone, he begins a quest across Minecraftia to try and find survivors. But there are hints that he is something more; the one that could put an end to the destruction. Join Alex and his motley band of teens as the fight to their last breath among a world of ruin. But they may find out that their world was more than just a world after all...
1. Reckoning Day

**Chapter 1**

**Reckoning Day**

I jolt awake, still under the covers of my bed. A terrible dream had woken me up, but I can't lose strength based on my imagination. I have a long day ahead of me, after all.

My name is Alex, and I am fourteen. You could say that I am pitied by many, living in a small home in the outskirts of town by myself. But I believe that I have lived a good life, going to school for my whole life and learning everything there is to know about my world. Today, though, we have the final practical tests at the end of ten years of school. These tests come once a year for all the fourteen year olds in my colony, that day is a holiday known as Reckoning Day.

Am I sorry to say that mine is today? I don't know, but I am afraid of what is to come. The tests are grueling, showing our abilities to fight monsters, how to survive with nothing in the wild, and knowing the recipes to craft so many tools and supplies. I have studied so much, and my years as a child living in my designated home with nothing to do but school are over. I must succeed my tests because after them, your job is assigned and you must work for your home.

I sit up in my mahogany house. It isn't that big, but none of the houses are big on the outskirts of Imperial Plains. I only own the necessities to my survival up to this point; emeralds to buy supplies, and food given out to the children. In my city, the children are never to live with their parents. All the newborns are shunted away to an orphanage, and once they are eight years old they are given a property to live in for six more years.

I'm leaving today though. All of my supplies that I don't bring with me in my backpack will be transported to my new home tomorrow. It's almost sad how I have to leave this house on Sandstone Street. My street goes all the way into the center of the city, so it will be easy to navigate my way to the tests.

I stand up at the side of my bed and grab my essentials. Food, obviously, is necessary, so I pack a bunch of cooked pork and some apples. I also grab a map and a compass, just in case there is a navigation test. I take my stone sword, a stone pickaxe, a stone axe, a stone shovel, and a stone hoe. I make sure that I have my leather armor hat as well. I take a bucket of water and an empty bucket, leaving all my papers and building materials. Finally, I grab my book, unwritten and packaged with an ink sac. My plan is to keep a journal of my life as an adult in Imperial Plains from now on, so I make sure that I have something to write with.

I stand back up and close my chest up. My little home, I guess I will be leaving it at last. Tomorrow, an eight year old will be given the property to live in and everything I left there. Only a few supplies and some apples that I have no need for, but I thought it was a good start when I moved in to find some wood and two melon slices.

I fix my leather cap to the top of my head and step out into the morning air. I would guess that many people will be filtering out of their homes into the city square in about an hour, and all the fourteen year olds will want to be there before then so that we can check in for the tests without having to weave between a bunch of farmers and miners. So with that final thought and a look back at my house, I advance down the long road to the town square.

Sandstone Street stretches from the town square all the way out to the city limits. Anyone who was brought up in Imperial Plains rarely leaves the city, though. The governor might take a couple guards with him to visit a distant colony to negotiate trades every once in a while, but never for longer than two days. It would be unwise to leave the town with no legal reason; the wilds are a rough place. Sure, the government teaches us how to survive in school, but never does anyone ever expect to have to use those skills for themselves. The edges of the town are protected by fortifiers, people whose job is to make sure no monsters enter the city.

The streets are beginning to fill with people coming to the town square for the tests. I keep my head down, not wanting to draw attention. I know that after today, I will finally be one of them.

At last, I reach the end of Sandstone Street and step into the town square. There is a small desk with one of the teachers for all of the fourteen year olds to check in. I see a border just outside the desk, presumably to keep all the spectators out of the way. Behind the desk is a staircase that leads underground, and a few meters past that is one that leads back up.

I reach an opening in the border fence and slip through, settling in line behind the rest of the fourteen year olds. It is only at this point that I realize how nervous I am. One slip in my tests and I could end up having a different job completely. But I push those thoughts out of my mind as the last person in front of me steps aside.

"My name is Alex, I'm checking in for the Reckoning Day tests," I told the receptionist. She flipped through a paper, presumably holding the names of the fourteen year olds, and when she found my name she scratched me out. A step aside and follow where the girl in front of me had gone.

There is a line of chairs, each bearing the name of all the fourteen year olds. No one gets their last name until they have completed the Reckoning Day tests, though the process in which you earn yours is held completely secret. I find the seat marked Alex and slide into it.

The only thing to do now is to wait for all the rest of the fourteen year olds. I drum my fingers impatiently. I could go with someone to talk to, but neither of the people sitting next to me has checked in yet, their names are 'Adam' and 'Alison'. Even when they do sit down, I find myself not wanting to talk anymore as I think about what is in store for me.

At last, the last person has taken her seat in the long line of fourteen year olds, and the governor steps forward to a stand where he has a speech waiting for him. Every year at this time, he addresses the fourteen year olds as children becoming men and women.

"Hello, Imperial Plains! It seems the day has come again to determine what our brethren will do as the shift into being adults," he begins, raising a hand in greeting. "It has been a long time, a time so long that the city records are unable to keep the exact date in which there was the first Reckoning Day.

"Every year, all the fourteen year olds in the city would come to the town square to receive a number of tests determining their qualities and traits, and therefore where they were to work as they became adults. The new fourteen year olds would also receive their last name as to not confuse them with others.

"So today, that day is upon us again where our new children are received the job of farmer, electrician, fortifier, law-maker, builder, forger, miner, or to become one of the Royal Guard. The new fourteen year olds will be called five at a time to begin their tests, so let Reckoning Day begin!" he concluded, to the applause of all the people who had now shown up. The governor grabbed piece of paper, and read off the first five names; "Adam, Alex, Alison, Beatrice, and Ben, please enter the stairway and good luck!" The crowd roared their approval as the five of us got in a single file line and headed down the stairs. At this point, I was truly shaking.

As we entered the room at the bottom of the stairs, Beatrice gasped. The room was immense, with a glass chamber separating each test from the next. In this first room, a person was waiting for us. "If you could all split up into your respective test rooms, that would be good," she said, and there were four doors on the side of the hall that were emblazoned with our names, telling us where to go. Allison stayed in the first chamber, while everyone else took their door.

I stepped through mine into a room identical to the first. It was then that I noticed that on this side of the glass barrier, all there was to be seen was a written test on a desk. I sat down and brandished my pencil, nodding hello to the tester situated in the room. "You may begin," she said quietly, and I looked at the first question. _Is it possible for any hostile mobs to spawn on glass? Why is this useful to know?_ This was easy. _No, they cannot. It is useful to understand this so that you have an added precaution when creating greenhouses._

I worked relentlessly on the test, and when the last of the thirty questions was complete, the tester beckoned me to go through the door in the glass chamber.

There were three practical tests. The first was to design a building that was safe from all mobs except the creeper with two stacks of wooden planks. I made a 5x4 home that was four meters tall with overhangs on the side so that it was safe from spiders. I hopefully received a good grade.

The next was to escort a tester through an obstacle course with a foam sword. There were various obstacles like trees and such, but also testers dressed up as different hostile mobs that you had to hit in their weak spots to kill. I passed this with flying colors. Fighting had always been easy for me.

The last of the practical tests a logic test. You started out with ten emeralds and a stack of coal, leather, and wheat. You also received a crafting table. The goal was to end up with fifty emeralds by trading before the end of ten minutes. I'm sure there was some very simple solution, but it took me nine minutes to pass.

At the end of this test, I entered a door at the end of the hall labeled _Naming Ceremonies_. There, I saw the long line of chairs again, but they must have been duplicates since they were empty. I sat down in mine, and Ben was already seated. The other three hurried over and sat in their respective seats. "Adam," a voice said, and the door at the end of the room slowly creaked open. He stood up and marched in and closed the door again. I waited about five minutes until my name was called.

Stepping through the door, I looked around, expecting to see a nothing. Instead, there was a pedestal at the center of the room and an assortment of blocks surrounding it. There was a tester waiting for me at the pedestal. I stepped up.

"The nature of this test is much different from the others," the tester said. "This one is much affected by luck, but prophecies exist to the meaning of a name that a name shall take."

I didn't get what he said. "The blocks will spin around the pedestal and you will be blindfolded. Once they have stopped spinning, you will take this knife and walk forward until you reach the block that you have walked toward. Then you will cut your arm once, and hold the blood over the block to drip on." The tester held out a blindfold for me.

I fastened it around my eyes and waited, knife in hand. There was the sound of a machine rotating, and when it had subsided, the tester said "Go."

I walked forward, not knowing what I would choose. When the tester said "Cut.", I stopped in my tracks and dug the knife into my arm and held it over whatever was in front of me.

"Glowstone. The honorable and holy, those who will fight for their cause. That is who you have joined, my young one. You may remove your blindfold."

I did, and before me shone a large rock that was emitting a strange yellow light. I smiled and walked out of the chamber, thinking of my new name: Alex Glowstone.

The end of this chamber led to a staircase, and before I knew it I was standing in the town square again. The crowd roared as I stepped out into the light. I could see the long line of fourteen year olds waiting, about twenty of the seats vacant.

"This is Alex Glowstone. May he share his inner light with all of us as he continues his career as a Royal Guardsman!" the governor announced.

There was cheering of the crowd as I stood there, dumbfounded. I was in the Royal Guard, one of the toughest groups to get into! Their function was to keep law straight within the city and to protect the governor and his family. This was amazing! I practically skipped over to the large group of them at the edge of the crowd.

From there, I watched into nightfall as many more fourteen year olds were chosen. Only two others were given the honor of becoming Royal Guardsmen: a boy named Jack Obsidian and a girl named Monica Emerald.

At the end of the ceremonies, the Royal Guardsmen moved with a surprising speed that we new members had to keep up with. We reached a large building opposite on the street to the governor's mansion. All the members jogged in through the doors and took stairs up to the floors, labeled by age. Ours was the second floor, the first being a lobby and food area. There were five dormitories off from the hallway, and three were already labeled with our names. I was so tired, I couldn't talk much, so I just headed into my dormitory without taking any of my surroundings in, and dropped my backpack next to my bed and slipped under the covers, hoping for a long nights' rest.


	2. No Man's Land

**Hey guys!**

**This is chapter two; it came so early because I already had it done, so there will be some delay now. I am glad to say that this chapter is where the plot really becomes apparent in the story. We also have the privilege of bearing witness to Alex's first action scene! I hope you guys enjoy; make sure that you R+R because it really helps me improve my writing!**

**Anyway, here's some R+R replies from Chapter 1:**

**Mellifluousness: Thank you so much! Coming from you, well, your writing is outstanding and it means a lot to me that you enjoyed the story so much. And yes, I will most definitely keep on writing.**

**Kyanite Archer: Thanks for your review. I'm glad you were gripped by the intro, and I know it kind of lagged in the prologue; that's something I need to work on. And as for the blood-cut part, I'm afraid if you don't like violence, you won't like this story. Alas, there are many fights to be picked when you are battling for the world!**

**Let the story commence!**

**Chapter 2:**

**No Man's Land**

My dreams are littered with images of glowstone and swords. Eventually, the glowstone fades away, where a diamond sword sits blankly in the blank world of my dream, where the crest of the Imperial Plains forms behind it. The crest is the image of a tall skyscraper with the sun forming on the horizon just below it. With the sword branded on top of this image, I realize this is the symbol of the Royal Guard. I remember seeing it when I was twelve and our class was studying the different jobs of the city.

But my dream morphs back into the sole Imperial Plains crest. But it looks different now. The horizon of a blue and red sky in the distance has turned into a dark night sky with millions of stars and no moon in sight. And the skyscraper in the crest is damaged, as if it has been destroyed by a mass TNT cannon. And I can vaguely smell burning… burning? I was waking up to burning?

My eyes snapped open just as the door to my new dormitory came crashing down. At the frame was Jack Obsidian, where he was brandishing his own stone sword. "Hurry and get up! The city's under attack!" he cried, then headed back out, presumably to kick down Monica Emerald's door, too.

I was still groggy, but I jumped to my feet and picked up my stone sword and sprinted out the door to the staircase. In all the history books we had read at school, I don't think the Imperial Plains had ever been attacked before. Whatever was happening, this was not good.

On my way to the staircase, I stopped at the window. It was hell out there. In the distance, the fortifications around the city were either in rubble or on fire, so the Fortifiers I presumed all dead. The houses on the outskirts of the city were in the same shape, and about midway down the main streets was a large mass of civilians and Royal Guardsmen packed together in battle. And they were fighting monsters! I could see zombies and skeletons and spiders and Creepers, all attacking my city.

I shook my head. I couldn't stand here admiring the battle. It was my job now to go down and fight. I thundered down the stairs, and once I reached the bottom, Jack and Monica caught up with me. We sprinted out of the lobby area into the cold night, where in the distance a mass battle was taking place.

"This definitely isn't a drill. What a great first day on the job," complained Monica as we made our way down Wooden Plank Parkway. I found myself running faster than I normally do… oh, crap! It was because I had left my backpack in the dormitory. So I had to carry everything I found in pockets. Absolutely marvelous.

Our trio eventually made it to the swarm of civilians. They were getting pinned down. The monsters seemed to be using an actual strategy, with the zombies and spiders in the frontlines while the skeletons stayed behind sniping the townspeople. Every couple seconds a creeper would run up from behind the skeletons and knock a bunch of unsuspecting civilians to the ground where the other monsters would eat them alive or just kill them instantly from the force of the explosion.

I brandished the sword in my two hands and took one of the front lines next to the ordinary townspeople. Even if we continued to put up this good effort, the monsters were still pushing us back toward the center of the city. We had no communication with the forces on different streets, and we were getting pinned back.

I took my sword and wielded it on every monster that dared to step forward. I swung it and sliced off a zombie's head, then jabbed it with incredible force into a spider's backside. I lifted my sword where the spider still hung impaled the end and beat a skeleton with the spider like I was swinging a club. I swung the sword hard at an incoming Creeper, and the spider flew off the sword landing dead a couple meters over. The Creeper charged again, and though I struck it, that wasn't enough to keep it at bay. It blew a hole in the street and I was launched backward where I slammed into a wall.

I stood up dazed and saw Monica sniping zombies with a bow and Jack hacking away at spiders. Then a Creeper came from behind Jack and blew up, launching him into the bowels of the mass group of monsters. It was safe to assume that he was torn apart.

I regrouped with Monica and began trying to keep the monsters at bay, but to no avail. She provided me with cover fire and I kept swinging until an arrow from a skeleton appeared out of nowhere and sunk into my arm. I yelled with pain and stumbled backward. Monica threw me a pork chop since I didn't have my food with me. But as she was turning to face me, spider jumped up and latched on to her, scratching and sinking its teeth into any exposed flesh. Two zombies ran forward toward her as well, and I gritted my teeth and yanked the arrow out of my shoulder's flesh wound and hurled it at one the zombies. Not the best attack, but it was all could manage while I was eating my pork chop.

Monica's form sunk to the ground, and the horde of monsters advanced even closer to me and the four townspeople still left standing. A Creeper ran forward and blew two of them to bits, sending me and the other two civilians flying backward. I sat up and realized we were in the round-a-bout surrounding the town square. I could make out the Royal Guardsmen's building and the governor's mansion, both of which looked eerily vacant. I got to my feet as the other two townspeople were torn apart by the monsters. I noticed that Cobblestone Convoy and Dispenser Drive were both spilling out monsters by the dozen like Wooden Plank Parkway. I hurried into the town square, where fifteen people were assembled in a pack to drive off the monsters from all sides in a last effort stand.

I hurried in and noticed that the majority of them were wearing Royal Guardsmen uniforms. "Who are you and what's your job?" asked one of husky men standing near the edge facing my now-vacant street.

"I'm Alex Glowstone, fourteen years old and just admitted into the Royal Guardsmen yesterday," I answered frantically, still trying to grasp that I was the only new member of the Guardsmen that was still alive.

"You are Alex? Go, now, to the top of the Guardsmen building! Everyone! Glowstone is secure! Fall back!" the man yelled, leaving Alex apprehensive as to what was going on.

"Go now, and don't turn back! You're the one they want, you are the herald of the prophecy!" the man commanded, shoving me along. I went up into the skyscraper that I now recognized as the one on the Imperial Plains crest. Before I went to the roof, though, I made a stop in my dormitory to collect my backpack. When I reached it though, it was empty. Someone had raided it in hopes that they could use my supplies to help them survive. But, I told myself, there was nothing I could do about that now, so I swung the bag over my shoulder and hurried up the eighteen flights of stairs to the twentieth floor roof.

I could see the entire city from here. The smells of burning filled my nostrils, and I stood to watch as the horde of zombies overpowered the last survivors guarding the door to the Royal Guardsmen building. Seven people came tumbling out of the staircase's entrance, and they all came running toward me. Two of them were badly injured, and as they slumped down I glanced at the stairway's entrance, expecting more survivors.

"Where is everyone else?" I questioned to no one in particular. But the large man from the town square answered the question. "There were three that were taken down at the front doors, and five more are guarding the staircase at the tenth floor. We're here to guard you," he growled, then resumed bandaging one of the injured woman's leg wound.

"Why are you guarding me? Why am I special? Why are the monsters all attacking with strategies to overcome the whole city?" I interrogated.

The man looked up at me with pity and said, "Kid, just keep your head down while we find you a way out of here. We'll give you answers in time." I took my stone sword into my hands and waited for the monsters to come pouring out onto the rooftop.

"How many Ender Pearls do we have?" the man yelled. There were three people that all yelled that they had one each, and the head man collected all three. "Take this," he said to me and a girl who was his age, probably around twenty. "When we give you the go, chuck the Pearl to that rations building way out there," he said, pointing to a vacant building behind the enemy lines way far out on Cobblestone Convoy.

He kept one of them for himself. Then the monsters came pouring through the door. In a last effort, the survivors hacked and slashed to keep the horde at bay. I sliced a zombie's chest and beheaded a spider, and after that final hit my sword split in two. Useless as it was now, I threw it at a skeleton that was taking aim at one of the people. "Throw the Pearls now!" said one of the survivors, and the three of us hurled the crystal balls to the vacant building.

When it touched the ground, I felt my inside squirming like a tight band was pressed around my chest. I couldn't breathe, and I panicked unmoving.

Then, my feet hit solid ground again. I crumpled down to the street. I could see the rations center in front of me. I turned around and looked off in the distance to the Royal Guardsmen's building. Suddenly, there was an explosion and the side of the building around the tenth floor blew apart. It looked exactly like it had in my dream now, with the dark night sky looming behind it like a black grip tightening around the destroyed city.

Then, the skyscraper leaned over on its side. I could see figures falling off the roof as they lost their balance; survivors and monsters alike. Then, where the building had the hole in it, it snapped in two and the entire building crashed down to my left.

There was a deafening crack and a following explosion as the building blew apart. Dust kicked up everywhere, and the world's black sky was no longer visible through the thick dust. I imagined all the people that had been killed. And for all that I knew there were only three survivors.

That reminded me of the leader and the woman. I looked back to the vacant building beside me. The man was sprawled on his back, slowly getting back up next to the empty door frame. The woman was climbing down the side of the building from the roof. I slowly rose to my feet, taking in the fact that my chest was weakened from the teleportation. I limped inside the building. The woman helped the man inside as well, and then placed a couple of stone blocks to seal the entrance.

As she gave the man steak to eat and replenish his health, I stroked my leg, which was also aching from the teleportation. I didn't have anything with me. No tools, no food, no supplies in general were stored in my backpack.

"So," I said, and then couldn't think of what else to say. Wait, yes I could! "What in the world is going on?"

The man sat up. "First of all, I'd like to properly introduce ourselves. My name is Frank Spruce, and this is Natalie Redstone. We know who you are already, though. Alex Glowstone, we are sorry you hadn't heard the Prophecy of Minecraftia yet, but even it proclaims that you could not know until the attack had started," Frank replied.

"Well that still doesn't explain to me what happened!" I protested, frustrated by lack of cooperation. "I'm having a peaceful dream and the next thing I know I'm being woken up and told that my whole world is on fire! What the hell happened?!" I spat out, as if it was all their fault. I needed someone to blame, though, so don't turn on me.

"We would have told you Alex, but we ran out of time. I suppose it is time to tell you what is meant to happen," Natalie soothed softly. I stared into her dark grey eyes, which were so sympathizing.

"Okay, fine. But I want answers, this whole city is dead," I spat. I cracked my knuckles, and glanced back at the remains of the Royal Guardsmen's towers.

"Two months ago, a mysterious force wiped out a small town. It was a humanoid figure, all black with purple eyes. It took the whole town and all the civilians turned into figures that looked much like it. This has been continuing since then, and one of our Oracles…. That is, someone who makes prophecies about certain life-changing events for a living, a special government position not available to the public…. Anyway, one of ours made a prophecy on these beings, which Notch above dubbed Endermen, a long time ago foreseeing this day. The Prophecy of Minecraftia states that an individual from a major city would be given his last name and job, and the next day the city would be raided by an army of mobs under the Endermen's control. The child's last name would be Glowstone," Frank explained, beckoning to me at that last word. "We tried to make preparations to try and hold off the army, but it obviously wasn't enough."

"Well, what is the full prophecy? If I am to affect this somehow, I need to know what my destiny is," I interrogated.

"Ah, but Alex, you must know that the subject of a prophecy must learn its full contents by their own means. And unfortunately, the Raid of the Endermen's prophecy is no exception," Natalie told me. I knew that, I just wanted answers.

"Well, fine then. But what are we going to do now? The center of the town is where all the emergency supplies are, and we aren't really in any shape to head back there, are we?" I questioned.

"Our only option at this point is to head out of the city. I guess we should make our goodbyes," Frank answered gruffly.

I looked from one to another. "So that's it? We're just leaving? What the hell have I gotten myself into, picking glowstone in the Naming Ceremony," I said, still in disbelief about my current situation.

I stood up. I still had no supplies, so I was pretty much doomed. Natalie and Frank were both still mending their swords, so I walked out of the vacant building.

In the distance, I could still see the town square. The dust from the explosions before had settled, and I could see all of the mobs camping out in the ruins of the Royal Guardsmen's building. What was this, I still didn't understand my drastic change of events.

After Natalie and Frank were both fixed up, we set out on the road out of my home, leaving my old home behind.

At the city limits, I looked back at what was left of the fortifications. At every street, the gates were blasted apart and there were bloodstains from the dying Fortifiers. So many people lost. I imagined all of the fourteen year olds who had been selected to work in defense of the city and were torn apart on their first night.

We set out across a dirt road that had clearly been used recently. It was all a no man's land now, no cities that our group knew of in the whole of the world. At least I could see the break of the sunrise on the horizon; I wouldn't have to fight any monsters for another whole day.

Our group ventured off of the path, Frank claiming that 'it was too dangerous to be on a mobs' transportation route'. Through a large grassland, with nothing but tall grass and the occasional chicken.

At last, at about ten in the morning, we reached the end of the grassland biome and into a forest. "Thank Notch for wood," Natalie said, taking out a stone axe and chopping down a birch tree. Frank took his out too, and began chopping away at some other wooden blocks.

I looked down at my bare hands, feeling pitiful for myself. I guess that this was how the first settlers of Minecraftia got their wood; they punched trees.

I felt stupid slamming my fists into a large oak, but eventually the block two up from the grass popped away, where a small version of it hovered above the log. I reached out and grabbed it, and it flew into my now-not-empty backpack. Congratulations, self. You're harvesting wood like a tool. And not the good kind.

Eventually the entire tree was down, and the remaining leaf blocks floated in the air, starting to decay. I almost felt bad for the tree; it really wouldn't have had to be cut down if it weren't for these… Endermen, Frank called them? I had never read about them at our schools.

I continued punching wood until I had eighteen blocks of birch wood. There were five saplings on the ground and one apple, so I planted the saplings and ate the apple. I met back up with Natalie, who had crafted a workbench and was assembling something on it. I opened my backpack. There was a small 2X2 grid on the outside of the backpack for me to assemble basic crafting recipes without having to craft a workbench. I took one of my blocks of birch wood and put it on one of the squares in the grid. There was an arrow next to the grid pointing to a larger square, which now filled itself with an image of a wooden plank with a white number 4 written in its top right corner. I took the wooden planks, and placed each one in a different block in the grid. This time in the block next to it, there was a crafting table. I grabbed my own workbench and placed it on the ground in front of me.

Frank walked back over with his backpack. He made a crafting table and placed it down next to mine. I assemble some logs I had made into wooden planks into sticks, and then made myself a wooden pickaxe. I punched my workbench to death, and then looked back at my two companions. "So," I started, as Natalie packed away her workbench and Frank finished making a chest, "Should we settle here for now? Or should we see if we can find a more secure location?"

"I think that it will be no use leaving here. Then we would have to walk through the entire forest. Let's make a quick house here and make a simple stone mine so we can make more stone tools," suggested Frank. I nodded in agreement and dug up an 8X8 area in the flat plain out of the dirt next to the forest. Natalie filled it up with wood, and we created walls on the outer blocks four meters high, leaving two block high hole in the front of the house. Frank replaced his bench on the far left corner inside the house, and Natalie placed hers one over. I took the hint and placed it one more over, leaving a hole for my bed right next to the wall.

I suggested that I start the stone mine while Natalie and Frank went off to find nine sheep for beds in the forest. Not to be gossipy, but the way they talked when I wasn't around gave me the idea that they had been dating before the attacks on the city.

I punched the dirt next to the house in a staircase pattern down two blocks wide. Once I had struck stone, I whipped out my wooden pickaxe and mined stone down. When I was about ten stairs down, the block for the next stair wasn't stone like all the others; it was coal! I recognized its black specks, and mined out a little 5X4 room out of the stone at the bottom stair.

Once I had a little room, I mined the coal. I didn't realize how dark it was until I was crafting the coal and sticks into torches on the outside of my backpack. I lit the room up with four torches, and I was left with sixteen. I also had three pieces of coal that I hadn't used for torches, which would be useful for smelting something. I climbed back up my makeshift staircase, placing a torch halfway back up, and out into the fading sunlight. There, I placed two torches on either side of the door frame and two on the backside of the house. Then, I went back to my crafting table and built myself a door. I placed the door from the outside, and then used my remaining planks to make a roof. It was rather dark inside, so I put up four torches inside. Then I waited for Frank and Natalie to get back.

At last, they got back with more than enough wool. Natalie crafted three beds and gave one to each of us. I put mine down on the right corner of the wall and plopped down. Through the window, I could see the sun setting over the trees. I got up from my bed and crafted a furnace, which I put at the foot of my bed. Then I put the remaining coal inside and slumped back into my bed.

I had never slept in the same room as a girl in my living memory. I was never interested in the concept of romance, so it felt really awkward in here right now. I laughed at myself for thinking like that, and then shut my eyes. My last moments awake were filled with the distant calls of zombies and the clank of skeleton bones. My whole world had fallen apart in one day. Had that ever happened to anyone else before?

And the worst part was I didn't know the cause of the raid. I needed to know.

Wow! I hope you guys liked it, Alex finally makes his realization of what is going on, but as we can see he wants more info on his mysterious destiny.

Also, you guys have the privilege of competing in an OC contest, as I think it will be cool to do that. More info is on my profile page. Well, I should have the next chapter done soon, so make sure you check back soon!


	3. Manifest Destiny

** Hello once more!**

** Chapter Three, as you can see, has come out for the world to see! I'm so good at rhyming, aren't I? On another note, t****he story, as I have planned it, is forty chapters long with a prologue and an epilogue. I hope you guys can stick around that long!**

** Enough talking; I still have a story to tell!**

**Chapter 3**

**Manifest Destiny**

I woke the next morning to the flickering light of my torches. Frank and Natalie were both still asleep soundly in their beds at the other side of the room. I felt weird at being the first one awake, like I was alone. I sat up in my bed, and felt my fingers reach to my cheeks. There were tear tracks there; I had been crying in my sleep.

Not that I was surprised. My dreams had been filled with terrifying images. I saw the fortifications being blown apart. I imagined the children on the outskirts of the city being attacked in their sleep by zombies, not knowing how they had died. I could see mobs terrorizing the city, and replayed the scene of my waking up. I saw Jack and Monica die once more. I saw the Royal Guardsmen's building collapse. And I saw the faceless parents that I never knew because of the laws of the Imperial Plains being dragged down a street dead. And then my dream faded to white, where all I saw was a frightening picture of an Endermen, staring intently at me. "I," it said, though there was no mouth to move, "Am coming."

I wept again at the prospect of my world coming apart. I didn't know who these Endermen were, or what they wanted. I just knew that they would kill me if I didn't kill them first. My heart solidified into iron, and I stepped out of bed and faced the door. I wouldn't let these beings take me, too. They could take my life, but not my spirit. What a speech.

I shut my conscience up, which was probably laughing at my idiotic thoughts. I didn't care though. With that, I pushed my past life out of my head and focused on surviving.

I made myself all stone tools on my workbench, wielding a stone sword, axe, pickaxe, and shovel. I figured that I didn't need a hoe; after all, it was for farming, which I wouldn't be doing. I looked outside the little window in our wooden door. It was still dawn, and I could see mobs all over the fields around our house. I decided to wait out for the sun, which would burn up most of the mobs.

I sat on my bed, waiting for either Frank or Natalie to wake up. It seemed that moment wouldn't be coming anytime soon, so I checked back at our small window. The sun had risen, and the fields were barren except for a band of three creepers way out in the distance of the forest. I decided it was safe to sneak into my stone mine. I opened the door and carefully took my time sneaking around the house and into my makeshift staircase.

I bounded down, excited by the prospect of something to do. Once down in my little room, I put two torches on the wall on either side of the staircase and took down all the others. Then I whipped out my pickaxe and set to work in expanding my shelter to a 10X10 room. Pleased with my work, I admired the new room and put up some more torches to brighten the place up. Then I saw it; a peachy specked ore was on the right wall taking up four blocks in my room's border and probably expanding beyond that. It was iron! I hacked away at the ore, happy to know that the coal in my furnace would serve a purpose.

Soon I had carved a hole in my wall to get the whole vein of iron and evened out the side to make it look neater. I had acquired seven blocks of iron ore, so I bounded up the stairs to the surface.

I opened the door to our group's humble shelter, where my companions were still fast asleep. I didn't understand how they could sleep through the nightmares a survivor of our situation was sure to have. I was beginning to get annoyed at the lack of companionship; after all, it was already nine in the morning.

I placed my iron ore in the furnace to begin smelting, and Frank stirred in his sleep and woke up. His eyes were stained red, and his hair was disheveled. "Ugh…. I had terrible sleep last night. What's for breakfast?" he moaned, sliding out of his bed as slow as a snail.

I laughed at his ignorance. "Breakfast," I chuckled, "Doesn't come until the one with all of the supplies makes it!" With this I raised an eyebrow, as he still hadn't taken the hint. "Hello? I'm not the one with the bread and pork chops!"

Frank rolled his eyes and rummaged in his bag for stone, bread, and pork chops. He assembled a furnace on his workbench, and then looked back at me. "Do you have any coal to cook the pork?" he asked in a much more alert tone than before. I tossed him two pieces I had gotten from expanding my underground mine and he set to work, cooking meat and dividing bread. Soon, Natalie had woken up as well and she headed out to gather a bit more wood.

When she got back, I had finished smelting my iron ingots and Frank was waiting for her, a breakfast of toasted bread with pork chops in between slices was prepared. Frank called it a 'sandwich'. I called it 'Aether between bread'.

After our quick and satisfying meal, I headed out of the house to continue expanding my makeshift mine. Natalie came with, while Frank gathered tall grass to start making a wheat farm. I began evening out the walls some more, when Natalie gasped. "Alex, come over here!" she cried. I hurried over, and saw her standing over a hole in my room. The hole was not jointed by stone, though. Below it was an unlit natural cave system! I hi-fived Natalie and then hurried up to our house to get the proper equipment for cave exploration. I put away all my supplies except for my stone sword, pickaxe, and shovel, a stack of dirt, some sticks, and all my torches in the chest that Frank had built before.

I then hurried back downstairs to the hole. Natalie had a carved out a staircase into the system, and I placed torches in our entrance to the cave. It was natural from what I could tell, and had never been explored before. On the wall opposite I saw some iron, and to the left of that was a passage that led upwards. "Let's dig down, we'll be able to find better ores," I said, and then headed over to excavate the iron in the wall.

I realized that I wouldn't be able to mine much with my handy stone pick, so I headed back up to the house and constructed an iron one. Back in the house, I met Frank, who had been working on adding glass windows to the house. "When you are done with those, Natalie and I found a cave system that we are exploring," I told him once I had assembled my iron pick and placed my new iron ores in the furnace to smelt.

I entered the cave again to find Natalie mining up what was left of the iron that I had started to mine, and once she was done with that, we placed down a workbench and a furnace next to our staircase into my bunker, as I will refer to it as from now on.

At this point, Frank came trudging down the stairs. We placed some torches every couple steps we took, occasionally encountering a zombie or a skeleton, which we would make quick work of. We had found two stacks of iron, one stack of coal, one and a half stacks of gold, and three and a half stacks of redstone when we decided to head back up.

"I think we made a good haul today," I said as we began to smelt our various materials in the five furnaces we had now constructed to save time.

"I feel like a pioneer, constantly venturing off without a city to come back to," Natalie exclaimed, then fell silent as we remembered the town we had lost.

I left my iron and gold smelting, and then pulled the covers of my bed over my chest. I was so tired, and I fell asleep within instants of hitting the covers.

That night, I dreamed of underground lava lakes and the treasures around them. It was a peaceful dream, thinking about resources I could use in my daily fight for survival.

I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed, and yawned in my bed. I saw that Natalie was nudging Frank rigorously to wake him up. "What are you doing that for?" I asked, and Natalie jumped because she hadn't noticed I had woken up. "Look outside the window," she whispered. I slowly rose out of bed and over to a glass window on the left side of the house that they must have put up while I was asleep.

Any sense of refreshment in my body quickly evaporated. There, about a hundred meters away in the plains, was a mob camp. They had small overhangs for the zombies and skeletons as it was early morning and the sun was out. There was an assortment of creepers and spiders, and I noticed one Enderman.

It looked exactly like Frank had described it to me. It was covered in creepy black scales and had six very slim limbs. Its purple eyes seemed to pulsate, and I was suddenly glad that our house was so far away.

"What do you think they're doing here?" I said under my breath. I looked back at Natalie, who had finally awoken Frank and was explaining the situation to him in whispers. She looked up to me and said, "I suspect that they know we are here. It is pretty obvious, isn't it? I suggest that we pack up vital supplies and get out of here, taking the trees as cover." She pointed at the door and into the large forest, and I nodded in agreement.

I went back and filled my inventory with all the iron, gold, wood, stone, tools, and food that I had with me. I went back to my crafting table and constructed myself an iron sword, figuring I'd need something more useful if the monsters caught up to us. I put a chest, a furnace, my bed, and my crafting table away into my backpack as well, and took down all the torches inside our house.

We snuck over to the wooden door and Frank demolished it with his axe. Before any of the monsters had even noticed us, we were dashing through the forest at breakneck speed. Then I heard it; a peculiar noise, I registered it as _zzzt_. I looked to the left and saw the Enderman, surveying us. It didn't make any attempt to attack us, but only stared at us as we ran through the forest.

I focused on sprinting forward and didn't look back again until we were safely into a mountain biome. We waded across a river and climbed the top of a very steep hill, then collapsed. I chewed on some mushroom soup while Frank mined up a small staircase into the mountain.

I made sure that there were no mobs tailing us, and then went down the stairs that Frank had cleared out. At the bottom, he had hollowed out a 10X10 space room, which he had lit with torches and put down his bed, furnace, chest, and crafting table in one corner. I put my stuff down in a different corner and went back upstairs. There, I took out my stone and built a little guardrail shelter with a door that hid our underground staircase. Natalie followed me back downstairs.

She put her things in yet another corner. I settled down and thought over what had just happened. The second time in three days that my home had been taken over by mobs angered me. The bitter taste in my mouth was unbearable, and I shouted some curse words that I probably shouldn't have.

"Excuse me?" Natalie and Frank said in unison, staring at me with raised eyebrows.

"Oh, I didn't mean to say that out loud. I'm just ticked…." I faltered. They went back to their work without another word, as if that explained everything. I guess I was happier that way, though. In no time soon did I want to have to explain another word about my feelings to anyone.

Since I didn't really have anything to do, I went to fish my notebook out of my backpack. I realized it wasn't there, and I remembered my backpack being emptied on the night of the Raid. I would have to collect the materials for a new one, so I walked out of our house and went looking around.

There was a cow about halfway down the hill, as was a chicken. I slaughtered both of them and collected the leather and feathers, respectively. I had the leather for the book and the feather for the writing, now. I spotted the river back down at the intersection of the forest and mountain. There was some squid and a bunch of sugarcane, so I collected some ink sacs and three bundles of the reeds.

From there, I hiked back up the hill to our underground shelter. Natalie was cooking; she said that Frank had gone to collect some wood. I walked over to my crafting table and set to work. First, I turned the sugarcane into paper. Then, I wrapped the leather around the paper to make a book. There, it was done.

I sat down on my bed and opened my empty book. I dipped the feather in the ink sac and began to write.

_Day 1_

_ I am Alex Glowstone. I'm more important than I think, because I won't be getting any answers anytime soon. Everything seemed so great, and then mobs ran over my city Imperial Plains. I don't know what the cause is. But according to my partners, it has to do with me._

_ I was lucky to escape the city with two people; their names are Frank Spruce and Natalie Redstone. They were members of the Royal Guardsmen before the attacks, like I was supposed to be. Apparently, though, I really was supposed to be on the run like I am now. They claim that there is a prophecy saying that the day after I was given my last name, the city would be overrun in an attempt to seize me._

_ My travel partners also claim that I am the only one who will be able to stop some new threat in Minecraftia. I don't know if I believe them or not. I mean, what is so special about me? I suppose that is what I am meant to find out._

_ Now we are living in an underground shelter. I don't know what we have to do, but I have a feeling I will be shocked when I learn my truth._

_ I just know one thing for sure about my situation now. I will take down these Endermen if it is the last thing I do. And I have a bad feeling that it will be._

_~Alex Glowstone_

That seemed good enough. I inscribed '_Property of Alex Glowstone_' on the cover, than tucked it back into my backpack. Frank had returned and was mining up the stone walls and replacing them with wood. I helped him by mining the stone as he put down the wood. Then we did the same thing to the ceiling and the floor.

I stretched out and looked out the door. It was only about one o'clock. I headed back down into the shelter, where Natalie was serving lunch. It was more of those 'sandwiches' and I scarfed mine down with enthusiasm. Once I had finished my meal, I hurried back outside. I tried to think of something productive to do. I couldn't really. We had our shelter obscured and refurbished, and I had my journal done and written for today.

Thinking of various ideas, something caught my attention in the distance. There was a shape mining trees far out on the edge of the forest. It looked vaguely humanoid. I figured that only humans would have a use for wood, and that meant there was someone else out there! I double checked through our door that Frank and Natalie were both still there, and then headed down into the valley next to the forest.

I was about a hundred meters away, and I had waded across the river. It was definitely a human, for he/she was using a stone axe. I bounded behind one of the trees. He/she noticed movement, and stopped cutting down the tree for a second to look up. Then he/she ran away. I stepped out from my tree and watched the survivor go. Was this person from Imperial Plains? Or a different colony? Whoever they were and where they were from, he/she was gone now, already hundreds of meters up a different mountain and around the edge of it.

Disappointed by my blown opportunity to pick up someone else for our travelers' group, I trudged back up our mountain and into our shelter.

There still wasn't much to do, so I checked what I had in my backpack. I had my iron sword, iron pickaxe, stone axe, and stone shovel. I also had some stone from hollowing out our shelter. I made sure that I had some food and torches with me as well. All of the ores were still in my chest next to my bed. I was bored.

I decided to go out and collect some food. I went back out and opened the door again and saw a small herd of cows. My mind evaporated and all that was left was thoughts about eating some nice, juicy, steak. I gripped my iron sword with both hands and stalked down the six cows that were frolicking around in the valley next to the river.

I was ten meters away from the first one. _I could go for some steak. It would be good to have it over pasta,_ I thought hungrily as I approached a particularly innocent-looking one. _There were such wonderful dishes to be made when you ground wet bread and placed chunks of beef over it._ And with that, I brought my sword down with a battle cry on my prey. It crumbled into dust, and a piece of leather was left on the ground with two pieces of raw beef. _Yum, let's get some more of your friends._

I clambered over to my victim's friend, and my next meal. _Yes, in the old world that had many meals that would be impossible to make here. I think they were called 'French'. I wish I could eat their food now._ I exited my depressing, French food-loving thoughts and swiped two more cows with my trusty iron sword. I received two more pieces of leather and three more pieces of raw beef.

I had exterminated the entire herd and was left with nine pieces of beef and seven pieces of leather. I laughed at my inner hunter. _Now to imagine more food!_

I got back to my wonderful underground structure and put my beef in the furnace. Then I walked over to my crafting table and made myself a new leather hat. My favorite hat had also been raided before the attacks on Imperial Plains. I placed the new one atop my head and fastened it on.

Our crew of three ate my wonderful steak dinner (_Steak dinner!_). After that, I settled down into my bed. Where would we be going next? If I am to fulfill my prophecy, I need to do something to get farther in my quest. And there is still the prospect of me seeing that survivor.

Who was that person? And would I be able to trust her?

** Thanks guys for reading once again. I hope you guys like the story, and the plotline is getting ever more apparent. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of the story, and make sure you R+R. Also, at this time I am sad to say that the Original Character contest has been closed due to a drastic amount of submissions received within just one day! See you guys in a while!**


	4. Leap of Faith

** Hello once more, my faithful readers!**

** As I have stated in the previous chapter, I am sorry to say that the contest for OCs has been closed due to such good ideas breaking out in the first day or so of the contest being announced. To the three of you that I have mentioned your winning, congratulations and please don't tell anyone that you were one of the winners, I will reveal them in Ch. 6. It would not be fair for people to know the winners before the announcement. Thank you so much to you all who did submit ideas and did not win, I will probably do this again in the future.**

**FullMoonFlygon****: Yes, I suppose that I do write considerably fast. It is annoying that I work on the story so much; I think there is something wrong with me! :P Also, the pasta reference is in for a reason, as one of the reviewers on here has found out. And about Natalie, she won't be with Alex. You'll see why.**

**Mellifluousness****: It is a good expression. I used it at lunch at school and everyone looked at me like I was crazy. And about the Enderman, I messed up. They don't have six limbs, they have four. (stupid, stupid) Anyway, I fixed that up. So I don't seem stupid about the subject of my story anymore.**

**Kyanite Archer****: You are correct! Two people sent me in forms after the deadline, which was annoying. Bleh. Also, the dormitory thing can be a set of rooms, he just had an individual one. Does that make sense? 0_o**

**Tails-is-pwnage****: Thanks for your review, and I explained your concern in a PM. It is too dangerous to say to the community.**

** Anyway, let the sto****ry commence!**

**Chapter 4**

**Leap of Faith**

It had been three days since the mass outbreak of mobs in Imperial Plains. The days were counting down until the last major city had been overrun, Mt. Wolfpack. New Copenhagen had been taken over a week ago, and half a week later Imperial Plains had been reduced to ruin. The bright side, though, was that Alex Glowstone had made it out alive with two people from the Royal Guardsmen.

At this point, that was pretty much all that mattered to Notch. Hell had broken loose, and Herobrine, for once, had no means of controlling it. The Endermen's numbers were increasing. Notch had hope for Mt. Wolfpack, though, because of its strategic defense position at the top of the mountain the town was named after. Notch thought that if Alex could be transported to the last city still standing, he would be safe to research and assume his fate.

Notch, at this moment, was sitting in his grand living room in the Temple of Aether. Around him were couches made of the finest clouds in the Aether, and the floors were made of genuine Gravitite. His walls were covered with pictures of some of the finest adventurers in the history of Minecraftia; Lewis and Simon of the Yogscast, the adventurer Syndicate, Salted, BouldeNeige, and the entire CraftedMovie group, and the various members of Machinima. Each one featured them doing things that sparked heroism and imagination; building castles, fighting monsters, and working with friends. Notch thought that those three traits, heroism, imagination, and friendship, could be used together to create the greatest Minecraftian of all time.

Notch hoped that Alex Glowstone would inherit those features. He had a job that had been thrust upon him with no warning, one that would save all of Minecraftia. Notch felt bad for his pupil, even though it was meant to be this way. He knew that he should pay a visit to his only hope soon, but it was to be done in time; things like these could not be rushed.

There was a large banging on the holystone doors to his living room. Notch twirled his bowler hat in his hand and placed it on his head. "Come in," he croaked gruffly, obviously bothered by the present situation of his world.

The doors creaked open, and in hurried a Minecraftian angel with news. "Your brother wishes to see you. He says that it is urgent," gulped the angel, with a voice female and tone hurried and afraid. She gave a Minecraftian salute, which was a gesture made by pressing the flat hand on its side to your forehead and flicking it outward, and then hurried back out the doors to leave Notch alone once more.

Notch opened the door again, and walked out into the palace hall. In times like these, he did not see as many visitors because many thought the new threat was coming from the Nether, so they rarely dared to travel there to collect glowstone, which was needed for travel to the Aether. This, Notch knew, was not true, but it would be unwise to alert the common people that neither he nor Herobrine had control over the Endermen. Only the seldom few who knew the contents of the Prophecy of Minecraftia ever visited Notch's realm anymore.

Notch hurried through the corridor and into the Entrance Hall. It was grand, with a large open frame for human visitors to enter through. There were also doors to the corridor to the living room that Notch had just exited, a door into the dining room, and a stairway up to the second floor which housed Notch's bedroom, the watchtower, and the Room of Knowledge. On the side of the wall closest to the staircase, there were two portals: one Aether one back to the Overworld which exited in a portal at the tallest part of the sky, and a Nether one that led directly to Herobrine's palace in the underworld.

Notch walked over to the dark Nether portal, and stepped through into his brother's grand residence. Notch felt the peculiar but now familiar tickling sensation as he was transported to the Nether Palace Entrance Hall. Notch automatically felt the temperature go up about fifty degrees, and willed the air around him to be filled with the cool winds of the Aether.

As he walked toward the living room of Herobrine's temple, many of the Zombie Pigmen servants looked strangely at him. After all, in a world lit only by fire and glowstone, he was emitting an aura that lit up the entire room.

Notch walked down the hall into the living room, where his brother awaited him. Herobrine looked exactly like the normal Minecraftian person except that his eyes were without pupils. He stared up at Notch and pointed at a dark red wool seat across from him. "Have a seat, brother."

Notch sat down comfortably in his chair. The average person would be terrified to be in this situation, but Notch felt at home with his brother. The thing that caused him distress was the threat that the Endermen were posing in the two brothers' dream world. This room was very much the same as Notch's in Aether, except that the textures were different and the pictures on the walls boasted the monsters that Herobrine had created.

"What is it that you need to call to my attention, my dear brother," Notch asked tentatively, staring into the blank white eyes with no fear. He drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair.

"Well, on one note, I would enjoy a tea. It has been a long time since we were on Earth and you haven't added them to our world," Herobrine mused, thinking of a very warm cup of mint tea that he had drank the day before he became part of Minecraftia.

"I was thinking about adding them as another plant that grows on trees in the jungle. Tea leaves, maybe?" Notch thought aloud, and then focused back on Herobrine because he obviously wasn't done. And even Notch wouldn't want to stop Herobrine mid-sentence.

"Other than that, I think it is best if you look at this," he said, and then stood and hastily walked over to a window. The air outside was fogged out with ashen fire and smoke. But as Notch looked closer, he could see a Zombie Pigman running in circles. Running in circles? Didn't they usually just wander around?

Then, he saw that there was a black mark on its golden sword. The mark was shaped like an eye, and clearly stood out from the sleek, gold metal of the blade.

Out of the corner of his eye, Notch noticed an Enderman sitting there. The Enderman noticed another Zombie Pigman and teleported behind it. The Enderman then lapsed onto it with his arms and branded its sword with the same mark. The new Zombie Pigman shook away the Enderman, and appeared disoriented. He stumbled over to the other one and began hacking away at its ally.

"The Endermen are putting the mobs under their total control," Herobrine sighed. "I am trying to create a remedy, but nothing is working. I presume that this is how all of the mobs are seemingly working as a group. I want to keep these beings out of my realm; they are creating havoc everywhere they go." Herobrine shook his head as the Enderman waved his arms like he was playing a game as he forced the Zombie Pigmen to kill each other. Once one had finished the other, the winner jumped into a pit and presumably fell to its death.

"If this continues, my world will be completely subject to their armies as none of the people in Minecraftia stay here for long. We need to stop this Raid of the Endermen, brother," Herobrine completed. He had a sorrowful look on his face, and he wished that he could somehow change the turn of events in his world.

Notch turned to his brother with a solemn face. "I wish that I knew what was causing these happenings, but I will work hard to ensure that our world will be safe once more," Notch replied grimly. He walked back over to the door and stopped with his hand on the frame. Notch turned back to face his brother. Herobrine was still staring intently through the window at the devastation of his people. "Brother, I will fix this if it is the last thing I do," Notch sighed, then stalked out of the room and back into the entrance hall.

After returning to the Aether, he walked up his grand tower and stared out beyond the floating islands of the Aether to the Overworld. There were many biomes and towns, and atop a mountain there stood a figure surveying the land. It was Alex. Notch figured that he would eventually have to talk to him through dreams. But now, as the Lord of the Aether knew, was not the time. He thought of the intricate prophecy and what it could mean when he saw another figure approaching Alex. It wasn't one of his traveling partners, but it was a human. The figure stopped at a tree-line and began chopping down wood.

Odd as this was, Notch saw it as a great opportunity. He thought that if he could help this strange visitor to team up with Alex, then he would have a greater chance at survival. The figure noticed Alex and darted away, but Notch was left of thoughts and ideas on how to help his only hope survive.

After all, thinking up ideas was what he did for a living.

**TPoM**

I woke the next morning slowly, as if I were still living in a content household surrounded by people willing to protect me. Not for what I am, but just because it was the right thing to do. I miss the times when it was like that.

I lay in bed, still not getting up. Frank and Natalie were both absent from the room. I clicked my tongue contently, just because I had nothing better to do than get out of bed, which I definitely did not want to do at this moment.

Nevertheless, I couldn't be completely interdependent. I dragged myself out from under the covers and checked our food chest to see what was there. I grabbed a sandwich and climbed the stairs up to the top of the mountain.

I emerged in the sunlight, and shielded my eyes from the sudden change of light. I finished what was left of my sandwich and looked around, expecting to see Frank or Natalie around me. But I didn't.

I started trembling. Had they left me, given up on my supposed prophecy? I prayed to Notch that this wasn't the case until I saw it.

Climbing the mountain toward me was a creeper. It shuffled its four legs continuously as it slowly came toward me. I held out my iron sword, glad that I was on higher ground. As it drew nearer, I noticed a black mark on its normally green and grey chest. It looked almost like an eye, and I did a double-take. Creepers didn't normally have that, did they?

I pushed aside these thoughts and slashed at the creeper with my sword. It stumbled backward, and I hacked at it twice more. Creepers, I knew, were one of the trickiest mobs to fight because of their infamous trait of blowing up in your face if you got close enough. Luckily, I kept this monster below me at all times, and with a final stab it keeled over and crumbled into dust. There, where its remains were, was a small pile of gunpowder. It zipped into my backpack and I checked how much there was in units. There were two. I would need two more for TNT, which would be handy for fighting in a battle.

My adrenaline rush subsided, and I realized that I had to find my comrades. I checked both sides of the hill, and finally saw a cave near the bottom that I had never seen before. There were torches around the entrance, and next to one was a sign that read:

_Alex,_

_ We went down to mine_

_ Please follow when given opportunity_

_ Frank & Natalie_

It was a simple enough note, but I would have preferred if it had been somewhere that I knew existed before I found it. Nevertheless, I readied my sword and pickaxe and sneaked down the cavern.

The torches went on for a while until I reached a point where I could hear voices. "Guys!" I shouted into the dark depths of an unlit corridor, "Where are you?"

There were footsteps from the side and I turned to observe a skeleton. It held a bow and had the same mark branded on the side of what was left of its skull. I made quick work of it, receiving a bone and some experience when I noticed some more humanoid silhouettes closing in around me. Two from the side were revealed to be my companions in the light of the upwards corridor. The rest, it seemed, were an assortment of skeletons and zombies.

The zombies all had the black mark on their shirts, and the skeletons all had it on their skulls. I whipped my sword around with surprising strength, aided by the sword of Frank and the bow of Natalie. Together, we stood back-to-back-to-back and kept the horde at bay. Once again, the mass amount of monsters was using an actual strategy. The skeletons flanked us on the side while the zombies took the front lines.

Once the last of the fifteen or so undead were wiped out, I stuffed an apple in my mouth. I turned back to my companions, who stood over the stone floor and were eating a small bit, as well. "What in the world was that ambush about?" I questioned, confused at how the monsters had been able to fight using a strategy. I recognized some iron on the walls, and stood up to go retrieve it.

"I'm pretty sure that the Endermen are somehow able to completely control other mobs. It is an asset that might win them this war," Frank replied grimly. "I wish that we could figure out how they are doing it. Fighting creepers was bad enough already."

I collected five iron ore and turned back to him. "We'll just have to find out, won't we? I did see that all the monsters that seem to be under their control have this weird mark on them. It almost looks like an eye, and it is solid black," I explained.

"I think that we should be on constant vigilance for monsters. They seem to know when to regroup and when to ambush, which is unlike them normally. We should also try to check the behavior of these monsters with a mark like you described, Alex," Natalie suggested. I shrugged in agreement, and then continued down the dark halls of the cavern.

I had acquired a good amount of stone and coal by the time I was done. We put the twenty iron ores that we had found as a group into a furnace back in our house and waited for it to smelt.

Once it was done smelting, we divided up the iron for our own needs. I constructed an iron axe and shovel with the eight pieces I had, then made myself a pair of iron boots. After slipping on my new armor, I grabbed my book out of my backpack and began to write.

_Day 2_

_ Today, we found out something treacherous. It seems that the Endermen are able to take control of the normal mobs like spiders and creepers by doing something that causes the effected mob to have a black mark like an eye on their body. We have no idea what this means, and we are going to run tests to find out more._

_ Also, I got some new armor boots. I haven't had new armor besides a hat ever, and the boots fit well. I fear that they will slow me down, though. I also made useful versions of my other tools, so now I am equipped very well._

_ Yesterday, I also saw someone. I don't know who it was, but she was a girl and she is on the run from the Raid of the Endermen like us. I only caught a glimpse of her near the river next to our mountain, and she ran off when she noticed me. I hope that I can get her and more people to join our group._

_ I need to find the answers to my prophecy. It is all so confusing, and there is a simple answer for what I need to do for these Endermen to be gone._

_~Alex Glowstone_

I closed my book and checked that all my supplies were in working order. We didn't really have much to do. I clicked my tongue absentmindedly and decided to get some wood from the forest across the river.

I stood up and climbed our stairs, and walked down the side of the mountain. Once I was at the bottom, I waded across the river and started cutting down an oak tree. I continued my work until it was dusk, and I wiped the sweat from my brow and checked my bag to see what I had with me. I had collected five stacks of logs. I figured that was good enough for now and I was about to wade across the river when I heard a bloodcurdling scream.

A woman's scream and it sounded a lot like Natalie. I hurried through the water. When had it grown so dark? It had only been dusk seconds ago!

I sliced open a creeper on the way up the mountain. It dropped two pieces of gunpowder. I collected it, and wished that I could have time to use my sand and gunpowder to make some TNT. I hurried up nevertheless, and the sight was terrifying.

There was a gigantic storm of monsters all crowding around a hopeless pair of Frank and Natalie. The two slashed away at the mobs that dared to step forward, but they were pinned against the edge of a thirty foot drop; not short enough for them to survive the fall.

I raised my iron sword and screamed with dignity, then began hacking away at the monsters. I split zombies' stomachs in two, leaving them sprawled on the ground if not dead. I made spiders launch backward with knockback and sliced off their legs. I stabbed creepers between the two blank, dark holes that they called eyes. And I chopped off the arms of skeletons, rendering them helpless as a spider came flying their way.

I fought with strength I had never before mustered, determined to protect the only people left that I knew of. Eventually, the monsters advanced on me and the crowd around my companions faded away. Natalie and Frank each took positions around the top of the mountain like mine, hacking and slicing every hostile in sight.

There was no way I could estimate how many monsters there were. They seemed to all keep coming from the depths of the mine that we had started earlier. And even worse, every single one that I slayed had the mysterious black mark branded on them. Every time that their numbers would thin down to less than ten, a new wave would come hurtling out of the cave below.

And eventually, they overpowered Natalie. A skeleton's arrow caught her cheek and she stumbled backward, groping for the arrow and pulling it out of her wound with a shriek of pain. At her distraction, a spider latched onto her pants and pulled her to the ground. She dug her fingers into the dirt around her, trying to latch onto something as some zombies pulled her into their numbers.

"No!" I heard Frank yell. I turned back to myself to fight off an incoming creeper, and glimpsed out of the corner of my eye Natalie struggling against their numbers. Frank attacked the spider that had initially grabbed her, but the zombies pulled her away as she screamed with terror. Then, a creeper stumbled up to her and began to sizzle.

With a loud explosion, Natalie's cries were silenced. A large, gaping hole in the ground lay where the creeper had blown up, and I stumbled off the edge and fell three meters onto the stone floor. I blocked the skeleton arrows and warded off the spiders, but I saw Frank rounding up all the mobs. And with a final salute, he jumped off the side of the mountain, bringing with him the majority of the mobs' numbers.

I was alone. For the first time ever, I was completely alone with no hope to be rescued. I stood with my mouth gaping, unable to believe what I had just seen. What the hell had Frank done for me?

It seemed a second or two before I realized that I was still being circled by monsters. The moon wasn't even at the midnight stage, so I would be fighting for a while. I slashed and spun and whirled around, as if daring a monster to come toward me.

Unfortunately, the numbers became overwhelming. I struggled to keep them at bay and I was surrounded. I fought off all the monsters, except for one creeper that came next to me and sizzled and inflated. I braced for the impact when suddenly, an iron sword jutted out of its forehead.

The creeper's dead body was pulled back, and the sword was pulled out by the hilt by a young woman. She looked at me quickly, and then checked for any incoming monsters. "Come on, we have to get out of here," she said, wielding her two-handed sword and stabbing a spider. She had long brown hair with a silver-ish shine to it. Her red eyes carried her sight down to the spider, and she put her finger to her lips and pressed her finger against the spider's dead forehead as it crumbled into dust.

I raised an eyebrow at this weird salute, and then scrambled up the sides of the pit to follow her as she raced down the mountainside. Then I realized; she was the girl I had seen by the river.

**What a solemn chapter. It seems that nothing is going Alex's way now, except for the fact that he has met the first OC winner! I won't say the name or winner's name until next chapter, but I promise that you will know.**

** Also, be sure to check out 'The Survival Games', a story I wrote based on the popular YouTube series based in the same canon world as TPoM. Check back soon for more chapters!**


	5. The Nomad

** Hey, everyone!**

** I am extremely sorry for taking a million years to update. I have been so caught up with SOLs and EOCs in school that I had study my butt off and I didn't get to write for forever. Then, when I opened my computer to write this chapter, I got writer's block.**

** Yuck. Anyway, after a week of brainstorming ideas for this story, I got back on this computer and showed it who's boss: not me. Pink Floyd is, that's who. Yeah, this chapter was fun to write thanks to that band jamming to _Shine On, You Crazy Diamond_ while I was writing. So suck it, writer's block. Pink Floyd can solve any problem!**

** Anyway, I am proud to announce the first winner of the OC contest: Mellifluousness, with her character! She has been given two sneak peeks so far, in Chapter 3 and 4, so now you all know who came up with her. And now, to the review responses!**

**Anthai11****: I think I already PMed you, but this is meant to happen, which I know I have explained to Tails. Thanks though, every compliment helps!**

**FullMoonFlygon****: I'm twisting my words around with this response. SO FIRST, I would like to say sorry you didn't get in a submission for the OC contest and that I'm really sorry. THEN, I'm gonna say YES, I did get some inspiration from your scene with Notch and Adeline. I also really like tea, so I did that. ALSO, I found that it reminded me of Mad-Eye as well once I had written it. AND FINALLY, there WILL be another OC contest later in the story, but when is not important you nosy scoundrels! That was a ton of writing, so I thought I would make it seem like I was rambling to make it sound fun. You're welcome!**

**Sea of Fire****: Thanks very much for your compliment, and I personally can't wait to see your story in the Ender Chest!**

**Mellifluousness****: I could do this to Frank and Natalie because evil runs in my veins! I BRING DEATH! (Say that last part in a Japanese accent so that I sound like Takeo. Go zombies!)**

**Skyrim99****: Thanks a lot!**

** So yeah, I am now responding to _every single person_ who reviews. This section is going to get ugly.**

** Let the story commence, my friends!**

**Chapter 5**

**The Nomad**

I stumbled down the mountain after the girl, a new adrenaline rush propelling me away from the battle behind me. I had now lost Frank and Natalie. For all I knew, I was the only survivor of Imperial Plains at this point.

Which brings me to the girl I was following. I had only gotten a quick glimpse at her, and she was already far down the mountain. I had no idea how old she was, but she couldn't be fourteen and from Imperial Plains; the only time I had seen her in my life was at the river the other day. Nevertheless, I followed her across the river. At the bank on the side adjacent to the forest, we stopped and caught our breath.

The moon seemed to have paused in the center of the sky. It must have been about midnight. I turned to the girl, who was staring out at the top of the mountain. I noticed her lips moving, and listened closely.

"May you rest in peace, and come back as one to live amongst the worthy as equal," she murmured, and she closed her eyes and clasped her hands together. I stared at her with an uncertainity. What in the world did that mean?

I could care less at the moment, as about ten zombies and skeletons were making their way down the mountain. I turned back to the girl, whose eyes were in open in slits, analyzing the scene afront her. Her eyes were a dark red, and her hair brown with a silvery glow to it. Her hair was in a ponytail, which bobbed above her bluish-green collared shirt. She wore long black pants that hung above her grey shoes. Her slightly tanned skin was dark against some strange white markings that snaked up her arms. They twisted in spirals and shapes which I had no idea what they meant.

She caught me staring at her, and I quickly turned away, feeling awkward. The mobs were now wading across the river, and she turned to me with a determined face. "We should avoid fighting if we can, that way we don't kill anything undeserving of it," she said quietly. When I turned back to her, she was already jogging into the underbrush of the oak forest.

I ran after her, confused as to why she had saved me. We traveled through the forest, but on an angle that led me away from the path I had taken from Imperial Plains. I figured that this was goodbye forever to my old city, as I had no idea where I was; I just followed the girl.

At the edge of the forest was a tundra, and we slowed our pace down to a walk. Snow was falling from the sky, and before the clouds had obscured the moon, I had seen it hovering at about the four o' clock mark. The sun rises at six every morning, so we had little time until the night ended.

In the meantime, we trekked across the snowy fields, littered with ponds that were frozen over and the occasional spruce tree. We finally reached a small hill that overlooked a frozen river leading to a taiga, where we stopped and rested as the snow flurry reached its end.

The horizon, now visible with no more fog, was glowing a bright orange as the sun made its way over the crest of the snowy fields we had prievously crossed over. "I think that the mobs are gone," I spoke, teeth chattering making it difficult to talk. Instead of my reaction to the cold weather, the girl next to me was smiling with a sort of enthusiasm. "What's up with you?" I asked, and she turned to me.

"I just haven't seen a human in so long," she replied with a bubbly enthusiasm. Her face turned grim. "So you should be lucky that I trust you, for now."

I raised an eyebrow, hard to do in the freezing cold. "What makes me lucky that you trust me?" I questioned. She smirked, and then quickly hid the smile in her eyes. "No one respects anything these days. Not the mobs, not the environment. I've heard the prophecy, though," she said, and I opened my mouth to speak. "Just hold on, okay?" she continued, now twirling her ponytail in between her fingers. "I'm going to show you the prophecy." By that, I supposed, she meant to take me to the Library of Prophecies.

Once, when a city was formed a long time ago. The city was called Magnam Civitatem. The leaders figured that they should make a safehouse where they could keep all their ideas safe. So they built an underground shelter in their city. The shelter was magically sealed, and could only be opened by those who had their prophecy in there. This way, someone could actually find out the prophecy.

The underground library, now a legend come true, would create a book for every prophecy spoken by an oracle. By doing this, the only possible way to find out a prophecy was either to question the oracle who had created it, or to find the Library of Prophecies and seek out your destiny there.

However, there was a problem. The city was constantly visited by people from those from villages elsewhere to find out their destiny for free. This, the people of the city thought, wasn't fair. So they used magic only the oracles of the city knew, considered the greatest of time, to hide their city. It wasn't visible on maps, and became part of an uncharted wasteland.

Only those from the city itself could know where it was. So it became the subject of many legends, and many thought it to be just that: a legend. Many called it the Lost Colony.

This girl, whoever she was, must be from that city. I looked at her, and asked, "Who are you? And are you from Magnam Civitatem?"

Her expression turned very grave. "I am Praecordia Soulsand, Prae for short. I am a proud fifteen years old. And yes, I was from Magnam Civitatem."

"Was?"

"The city was taken over by a rogue mayor," she sighed, looking sad as she stared at the sun hovering above the morning horizon. "He went corrupt with power, turning the people of the city into his slaves, and using magic he had learned to his advantage. Unfortunately, I had only just turned fourteen and been assigned to the fortifications. Even the magic of our city must be contained, and anyone under twenty years old was not allowed to know any of it except for how to find the city.

"Anyway, the mayor's name is Albert Stonebrick. He knew magic that no one else did, and used it to make an army to control the entire city. The man who guarded the Library of Prophecies destroyed his prophecy to make it impossible for him to enter the underground lair, and was killed after Albert learned what he had done. It was all for the best, I suppose.

"After about a month of this, I escaped the city while I was on fortifying duty, and I've been a nomad ever since," she finished. She stood from the snowy ground below her and stretched.

Don't get me wrong, I was glad that Prae had chosen to help me. But none of this explained why she was. "Not to be rude, but why _are_ you helping me?" I interrogated, from my seat on the permafrost below me.

"When I was twelve, my friend and I snuck into the Library to find out our destinies." she said with a dreamy look on her face, as if her mind was absorbed in her memories. "We couldn't find our prophecies, but we overheard the guard of the Library reading the Prophecy of Minecraftia aloud. He found us, but not before we had heard it's contents.

"About three months ago, when the outbreaks started, I was visited in a dream by Notch himself. He told me that I would find a person who was in deep trouble from a mob attack, and I had to help him. He was, as Notch put it, the Herald of the Survivors, the subject of the Prophecy itself. So when I found you at the river, I set out back to my home to prepare to save you. And lucky I did, because if I was a minute later, you probably would have been dead." She paused, with a thoughtful look on her face. "No offence."

"None taken," I replied, remembering my terror of the creeper two inches from my face on top of the mountain. I stood from the snow, and brushed off the flakes that were clinging to my clothes. "Where is you home, anyway?" I asked.

"I did tell you I'm a nomad, right?" she asked, and I nodded as we began to walk into the taiga's forest. "Well, then you'll know that I never stay anywhere for long."

And with that, we entered a clearing in the spruce trees where a small shack sat. She opened the door and beckoned for me to come inside. The room had a small interior, about 6X6. There was a bed, a workbench, and two furnaces on the left side, and a small chest on the other. I could tell she was a nomad just from looking at the house; no person planning to stick around would live in something so small.

"So you've been on the run for a year, now?" I asked Prae, who was taking a bunch of supplies out of her chest.

"Yeah, and I guess I'll be leaving here to take you to Magnam Civitatem, won't I?" she questioned as she started to pack away the furnishings in the house.

"I suppose, yes. Um, not to be nosy, but what did you do to that spider on the mountain last night?"

"Oh. It was a salute. I never want to kill anything, not even mobs set out to kill me. Its just a way of paying my respects, and hoping that they are reborn as something passive," she replied as she began to take down the roof of her shack. I decided that she would want to keep the materials, so I walked outside and sat against one of the tall trees in the cold snow. There, I took out my journal.

_Day 3_

_ Last night, our shelter on top of the mountain was overrun by mobs. I lost everything that was there, so I'm only left with what is in my backpack. Natalie died in the attack, and Frank sacrificed himself to save me. They are both gone, and now I'm completely stricken with grief. As far as I know, I am the only survivor of Imperial Plains at this point._

_ Luckily, I was saved from the attack from the girl I saw at the river. Her name is Praecordia Soulsand, and she is from Magnam Civitatem itself! I can't believe that I met someone from that city. She ran from it after its mayor turned corrupt, but she's taking me to the Library of Prophecies so that I can learn who I am. I might finally get answers on the prophecy._

_ How we will get there, though, I don't know. She says the mayor has a corrupt army guarding the city, and we have to find our way into the underground library. I suppose that she has a plan; she seems pretty smart._

_ The problem is, I don't think she trusts anyone other than me. Prae says that Notch told her about me, and that is why she is aiding me. She seems my equal, though; Frank and Natalie always seemed to be protecting me, and not working with me. Prae is different. This is not good if I am going to recruit more people for the group. But she knows my prophecy, and how to show me it. I think it is best if I go along with her._

_ After all, she is pretty._

_~Alex Glowstone_

I blinked twice at the page once I read over the last part. Had I seriously written that? This journal had to be kept to myself, I decided.

It was true, though.

After about five more minutes of waiting, Prae emerged from the site of the house with an iron axe and nothing left behind her. "I guess we are ready to go, then," she said, smiling at me. I stood from my seat in the snow as she brought out her massive, two-handed weapon. "What is with the gigantic sword?" I asked. She chuckled merrily, glancing at the iron broadsword. I realized that that was my thirtieth question or so of the day.

"This sword is Murder," she replied. "I find that if you name a sword, it helps to stay attached to it. Not literally, of course," she said quickly, and then mimed stabbing herself with it. I laughed, and then she began to walk away into the forest opposite where we had come from. I followed her, and we walked side by side through the cold wind and trees.

I took out my iron sword. What should I name it, I wondered. "Ocelot," I announced, causing Prae to look at me like I was crazy. Which, I confirmed, must have seemed true if I had just announced a mob name like nobody's business.

"Ocelot," I repeated. "That's the name of my sword."

"Cool," Prae replied, looking at my sword. "Why did you name it that?"

Now, I supposed, it was her turn to ask all of the questions. "Ocelot. A mob that is quick and agile, and not afraid to fight," I answered, "And scare away creepers. Just like my sword," I added with a grin.

Prae screwed up her eyebrows, thinking about what I had just said. "Very meaningful," she said mockingly, and laughed at her own joke. I smiled too, unable to contain it. "No, seriously," she managed to say through her giggles, "That is a pretty cool name. And let's hope that it scares away creepers, right?"

I laughed at this too, and soon we were both telling jokes to each other in our good mood as we walked through the snowy forest. I decided that I could trust Prae; she did know a lot about me from Notch before we had even met, and her personality was awesome.

We walked and talked like this for about an hour. At about this point, I was finishing up an old joke that we used to tell in Imperial Plains. "And so the final man said to the genie, 'I wish my two buddies were back with me.'" I said, and Prae doubled over laughing. I smiled, too; I had heard the joke so many times at this point that it wasn't as funny as it was a couple years ago when I had first heard it.

I tell you about this joke in particular because at this pinacle, we arrived at the edge of the forest. It seemed that the spruce trees were only a short break in the snowy plains. We had arrived in another tundra.

"Yeah, I forgot to tell you, that forest was only a small circle in a large hole in the world that is this tundra," Prae announced, waving her hand over the tundra that stretched out over the land as if drawing a line to emphasize it. "In Magnam Civitatem, we called this biome pattern the Owl's Eye. If you made a map over the land, you would find that it looked much like-"

"An owl's eye?" I interrupted. She smiled at me. "Yeah, how did you guess?" she asked playfully, and we both giggled over this as well.

As terrible as my situation was, it was great to be walking with Prae and share laughs together. It just seemed like it didn't belong in this scenario. I suppose that every story has it's ups and downs, though. This was just raising the bar for what could be considered an up.

We continued walking across these snowy plains until we reached a large ravine. It stretched as far as I could see in both directions.

"How will we get across this? There must be a bridge somewhere that gets people across, right?" I interrogated worriedly. Prae thought for a moment.

"I think there is a path across somewhere. But chances are it is far away, and if we choose to find it, we could be going in the wrong way," she replied.

I took this as an indication that we should make our way across now. I stepped up to the edge of the ravine and looked down. It must have been at least a thirty meter drop down to the cold stone floor below. I glanced back at Prae, who was preparing some wooden planks to go across. The giant gap in the ground was about ten meters.

I glanced at Prae, who was now ready to cross the chasm. She crouched down to stabilize herself so that she wouldn't fall down the ravine, then placed a line of wooden planks across it. Prae glanced back with a look of uncertainity on her face.

"Go ahead, it's only going to be more grueling if you wait longer," I reassured her. She took one final look, then inched across the one block wide bridge. Prae was about halfway across when there was a large gust of wind. I watched with bated breath as she stabilized herself, trying to keep her balance. Once the wind had subsided, she hurried across the rest of the makeshift bridge to the other side.

Now, it was my turn to across the ravine. I stepped up to the edge, and gulped as I observed the drop into the depths of the earth. I stepped onto the plank bridge and held my arms out for balance.

No way was I going to die now. I had a prophecy to fulfill.

I didn't think about anything and only walked forward. At last, in what felt like seconds, I reached the snowy ground on the other side. Relief washed over me instantly, and I took a moment to rest with Prae.

"That," I said, staring back at the ravine with a look of bewilderment on my face, "Was crazy."

"Honestly, it wasn't the craziest thing I've done before," replied Prae, and I chuckled at this thought.

We continued through the snowy fields for a while in silence. I didn't feel like talking after that scary experience.

After a while, we reached the edge of the Owl's Eye. It had been a long stint, but we were done and on the edge of an oak forest. The sun was hovering above the horizon now, I estimated that we had about an hour until the sun set and the mobs came out of the shadows to hunt me down, for whatever reason.

"I think we should set up camp here," I suggested, and Prae nodded in agreement. I took out some wooden planks and made a quick box house with an interior 6X6 and three meters high. It was quick, but it would serve a good purpose. I put some torches up inside and on either side of the door outside.

Once I was back inside, I surveyed my small shack. Prae had set up a bed and a workbench on one side of the room, so I put my workbench on the other. "I'm going to collect some wool for my bed," I told her, and with that I made myself a pair of iron shears and headed out into the forest.

After surveying some of the land, I saw a pack of six sheep over under a tree a couple trees away. I collected wool from three of them, and then headed back to the house. There, Prae was sharpening Murder on her bed, the silvery shine of her hair enhanced by the flickering light of the torches. I made myself a bed and placed it next to my workbench and sat down on it.

"How far do you think we are from Magnam Civitatem?" I asked her. She thought for a moment.

"We just exited the near side of Owl's Eye, so I would expect two days walking at the pace we did today," she replied. I sat on my bed and thought about that. Two days venturing like this would be fun, I thought. I laid down on my bed as the sun cast a red glow over the sky.

"Prae?" I said, wondering if she was still awake.

"Yeah?"

"What are those markings on your arms for?"

"Oh, these," she said, examining the marks on her arms. "They are a sign of what job I was when I was living in Magnam Civitatem. Every job had a different color, and the fortifiers were white."

"Oh, cool," I said numbly, with no other response in mind. "And why are you so caring for the mobs that you kill?"

"Well, that's because of the way that the teachers in my home city taught us," she said, her red eyes glowing like beacons in the fading light. "They taught us that they were things without a heart, that given the opportunity you should slaughter them for their resources. And if it's hostile, all the better; you are removing a threat from the world.

"But is it removing a threat if you are just killing off another species? We could somehow make piece with them, or capture them to prevent the hostile mobs from doing any harm in the first place. But why would you kill them off with no mercy? They have a heart, because the mobs are able to think and fight for each other, whether it be fight or flight."

I sat on my bed, thinking about these words. "In Imperial Plains, they never taught us to slaughter the mobs; just to take what you need and avoid the hostile ones. It was never ideal to do that..." I faltered, thinking of something else to say. "And it would be terrible if they were all wiped off the face of Minecraftia. That would mean less variety and less resources for our people in general."

The sun was completely down now, leaving the outside subject to the monsters of the night. "You know what, Alex?" Prae asked. "You may not be obsessed with the environment like I am, but you're a pretty good guy."

Note to self: learn how to accept a compliment from a girl. Try to say something back next time, and not fall asleep.

So Notch had sent me a comrade, had he? I definitely needed Prae to find out the prophecy. And I finally would soon enough, apparently. Thank you, Notch, for making her pretty.

** Well, that's the end of Ch. 5. Mellifluousness, I hope its okay with you that I changed her backstory a bit to make it fit for what I had in mind for the story's plotline. I don't think it is too siginificant, though.**

** Thanks everone for reading, and as always, read and review thoughtfully. Every bit of constructive criticism matters, and that goes for everything; not just writing.**

** I'll update soon, I promise! Sorry again for the long delay. I guess that's it, then.**

** Bye!**


	6. The Lost Colony

** Hello again, faithful readers!**

** First off, I want to congratulate you guys on making my life amazing. You know why? Well, in the three days since I posted _The Nomad_, TPoM has reached over a thousand hits! As I speak, we are currently at 1,049. I can't thank all of you enough who have read this, and especially those of you who are reviewing frequently, always giving me insight.**

** Also, I am happy to say that I am taking all of my works to the Ender Chest. I had this story in the Bookcase, but I think it will be better off if I have everything in one place. Sorry to michaeltheminecrafter, but I just feel more organized when all of my works are in one place. So from now on, you'll have to check out the Ender Chest for this story. It also has my oneshot, it will have the next oneshot that I am working on, and Sea of Fire's story is being showcased in there.**

** And without furthur ado, let's get to the review responses.**

**Sea of Fire****: Yes, this story is going to have a romantic twist in it from now on, so huzzah!**

**Kristeek****: Ouch, that metaphor really hurts. Yeah, I'm going to stop killing everyone off so fast, it was just kind of... um... ****_necessary_ in the first couple of chapters.**

**Mellifluousness****: No! The Grammar Nazi inside is fading, my friend. I have let slip an it/it's error, what will become of me next?! Seriously though, this is not good. Anyway, I'm glad that you still enjoy the story, and I hope that you check back again!**

**FullMoonFlygon****: Yeah, you got her name right. Praecordia. It is a pretty cool name, don't you think? Anyway, the naming the weapon came from Mellifluousness, she named the sword Murder, and I thought it would be cool to kind of spread that out so Prae didn't look like a weirdo. But I see how you got it from TMD, so yeah. And thank's for that tip; that should really help me out in the future.**

**shayor****: Hello, my long lost friend! Finally caught up to reviewing, did you? Also, when is your story coming out, Name Classified, and is it Minecraft, Harry Potter, or something else?**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 6**

**The Lost Colony**

I woke the next morning in our temporary house feeling greatly refreshed. I had had a pleasant dream about apples and trees, supposedly of a peaceful world that I would never know. I lay on my bed, watching the fire of the torches flicker across the room. I turned on my side to see Prae sleeping in the bed opposite, her chest rising and falling in a timely manner.

I stood up and opened the door outside to take in the chilled air. It was cool, and I noticed the sun only just rising above the horizon. If it was only early morning, I supposed that I could find some spiders for string. I readied myself with my leather helmet and iron boots, and then took out Ocelot to go spider hunting.

Our house was soon in the distance, and I took shelter under some of the trees in the forest, trying to find some spiders to hunt. Finally, I spotted one under a tree about a chunk away. I advanced on it, and found that it was one in a pack of four. I lifted Ocelot and brought it down on the first one.

The spiders were now passive during the daytime, but erupted into spitfire and anger as I killed the first of their pack. I swung Ocelot on all sides, making sure the spiders had no clear path to sinking their pincers into my body. The collective hits from my defence eventually vaporized them all into six strings and a couple of spider eyes, and I headed back to the house.

Inside, Prae was just waking up. I introduced her to the concept of sandwiches ("Oh my Notch, this is good!") and we began to take the house down. Once I had all my materials replenished, I quickly made two bows for us from sticks and the string I had gotten from the spiders. Prae searched her bag for some spare arrows, and we both had ten from skeleton attacks. After that, I picked up my crafting table and we set out in the direction of the forest. We traveled for hours, occasionally taking breaks to munch on an apple to keep our hunger up, and reached a hot desert.

I glanced up at the sky. It was already noon, and the heat of this biome was treacharous. I could feel my arms burning, and was glad that I didn't have a full suit of armor, or I would be boiling.

"Do we seriously have to continue through this?" I complained, feeling my energy draining just from walking at a slow pace over the sand dunes.

"I'm afraid so. We have to make it to Magnam Civitatem as fast as we can," Prae replied, trying to look like the strong one. But I could tell from her face that she was getting tired in the heat of the sun.

The day seemed to drag on after this, and it seemed like we would never make it out of the desert. At about two o' clock in the afternoon, we reached the crest of a particularily large hill and glanced down at the valley before us.

"Wow, its a well!" I exclaimed pointing at a structure made of sandstone bearing a good amount of water in the valley below.

"Um, I think that there is something greater of concern," Prae said, grinning wildly as she stared beyond the well. I squinted to see through the bright sunlight, and just within my line of sight was a large structure of sandstone and orange markings. "It's a desert temple," I said, shocked at our luck of finding one.

We made our way down the sand hill and walked across the valley with a new purpose. At the well, we paused and doused our faces with water. The coolness of it felt great against my face, at least until my hair got wet and stuck against my forehead, drooping down and making it hard to see. My hair obscured my left eye, and Prae snorted at the odd look it gave me.

"Let's just keep going, ok?" I muttered, and began the hundred meter trek to the large structure. I was halfway there when Prae caught up with me. "You know I'm just kidding, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just back off and let's take this temple by storm," I replied, my mock anger fading into excitement as I climbed the steps of the structure onto the landing, where an opening allowed me, followed by Prae, to enter the desert temple.

Inside, it was much cooler than the steaming temperature outside. The floor was riddled with all sorts of orange markings, and in the center of the room was a 3X3 hole down into a lit chasm. But that wasn't right. I knew from school that there was a blue wool block in the center, and more sandstone. If Prae didn't recognize the temple and it had already been looted, then that must mean-

"So, you stumbled into our trap, did you now," said a raspy voice from behind us. Prae and I turned around to face two men, probably around twenty-five, and each with blue swirly markings identical to Prae's white ones drawn upon their arms. The one who had spoken was the taller of the two, wearing a black uniform like the next man and holding a diamond sword in front of him. He had no armor, though, and I registered this as a possible weakness.

Prae's eyes had narrowed to thin, red slits. "And who might you be?" she said with a bitter distaste. The man, now obviously the leader, walked up to her, drawing taller to intimidate the both of us. His partner stood at the entrance to the temple, holding an iron sword in front of him, as if to ward us off.

"I am Sergeant Lazuli of the Magnam Army, that's who. And if I catch you back-talking to me again," the leader said, pausing to make a hand motion where he swiped his flat hand across his neck. "Don't introduce yourself, though. Praecordia Soulsand, I presume? Yes, you've been away for a year now. I'm sure that Mayor Stonebrick will be very pleased with my discovery."

Prae stood next to me, rigid and with her mouth open in disbelief. She shook her head. "We're on a mission, and I don't think that you can stop us."

Sergeant Lazuli sneered at her. "You're quite a catch, I must inform you. And your friend here," he waved his hand in the general direction of me, "He will be put in Magnam Civitatem's dungeons, as well, for being caught with a Level 1 Enemy of the City," he finished. "Private Waters, come over here and bind them up."

His partner walked up with strands of sugarcane and tied our hands together behind our backs. Luckily, they didn't take our backpacks of supplies, and instead walked us outside and around the pyramid to a minecart track, with four carts waiting to be pushed by a powered one. "Get in, now," Lazuli said, and we both grabbed the two middle ones. Sergeant Lazuli was in the front, followed by me, Prae, and Private Waters in the rear.

Waters put a stack of coal into the minecart, and we were on our way to Magnam Civitatem. However, and I was sure that Prae agreed, we weren't getting there the way we intended.

It was soon about five o' clock in the evening. The Sergeant had fallen asleep in his lead cart, and Waters was carefully tending to the powered minecart, making sure that we were heading to Magnam Civitatem at a steady pace. I leaned my head back toward Prae. "How far are we from the city?" I asked her in a whisper only audible for us to hear.

"At this rate, we should be there at five in the morning," she replied, and I slunk back down into my spot. "You know, I'm trying to break us out," she said, holding her bound wrists up in front of me. At first sight, the sugarcane bonds looked normal, but as I looked closer I noticed that they were looser than before. "I'm trying to bring my magic from inside out to uncurl the binds. Pretty basic, I should have it done in an hour."

"Tell me when you are done so you can free me. They're cutting into my wrists, and I don't like it."

And so I waited for an hour. The Sergeant seemed to be a very heavy sleeper, and we passed through the end of the desert and into a plain. The sun was hovering above the horizon when I heard Prae whisper, "Done."

I leaned back to observe her hands, completely free. She threw the sugarcane to the side, where it laid to rest in some tall grass. I held my arms up as I high as my shoulders allowed with them bound together, and she untied them.

The sugarcane slipped off, and my circulation began to flow through my hands again. "Whew," I exclaimed quietly, examining the deep cuts that the binds had left on me. I threw the sugarcane off as we passed a large oak tree in the middle of the plains. "Thanks," I told her, and opened up my backpack and took out my journal.

_Day 4_

_ Prae and I are on our way to Magnam Civitatem. We made it through the night unscathed, and we found a desert temple. But as we stepped inside to loot it, we realized it was a trap, and some of the Magnam Army came to arrest us because of Prae ditching the city a year ago without legal reason. We're working to get away, though. I'm free of my bonds, and we are headed straight for the city on a minecart train. I suppose that it couldn't be easier than this, as long as Sergeant Lazuli stays asleep, at least._

_ Prae has a plan, I can confirm that at this point. I really like her, and I hope that she sticks around with me for a while; everyone that I've teamed up with so far has died to soon to make good allies with._

_ We don't have much time until we get to the city. I'm going to sign off, and I hope that I'll still be alive tomorrow night to write another entry._

_~Alex Glowstone_

I put the journal away, careful that Prae doesn't see what I wrote yesterday, and close my eyes. I hope that sleep will come soon so that I can be well rested for our infiltration of the city.

My dream is corrupted, a world of rails that spin around and spiral in a black void. My minecart rolls around on them, and I feel helpless that I can't control where I am going in this never-ending rollercoaster.

I wake to a black world, leaning to the side of my cart. Sergeant Lazuli is still asleep in front of me, and Private Waters has his back turned to where we came, tending the furnace on the powered minecart. I turn to Prae, who is rubbing her eyes from drowsiness. I suppose that she has just woken as well.

"There is an unmanned docking station ahead, around two hundred meters away from the city. It's in the forest, but only just on the edge, so we should be able to make our way in stealthily," my partner whispered in my ear.

"How do you know?" I asked Prae, and she pointed up above the treeline to a large space needle pointing out of the ground. "The Tower of Magic, only visible to those who have the magic of the city, or those who are given it," she responds, leading me to believe that she has given me the magic, whatever that was. "You can access the city now, but your powers are limited to what I know," she notifies me.

"On the count of three, knock these guys out. One, two, three," Prae suggested, and on three I punched the Sergeant's head with both fists, and he slumped over, surely unconcious from the blow rather than sleep now.

"I figure we have two hours before these guys wake up. Come on, throw them overboard. There aren't any monsters in this forest, so they won't get mauled in their sleep," Prae ordered, and I flipped Lazuli into the grass below. The coal in the furnace had run out, and we slowed to a stop just as we reached the docking station.

It was a small platform built around the rail, with a wood wall facing the city to prevent a rogue one from barreling into the city derailed. The landing had a chest full of minecarts, spare rails, and coal. It also had a sign that read "_Welcome to Magnam Civitatem. If you are here, it must be a returning visit. If not, we suggest you leave immediately. By order of Jonathan Stonebrick._"

Prae climbed out of her minecart and onto the platform, and I followed suit. The wood creaked beneath my feet; this station was used very seldom.

We exited the station and crept over to the treeline. Hiding behind a good sized oak, we took a moment to check on everything. I had my iron sword ready, my leather cap and iron boots were secure, and I had enough food for a while. Once Prae had finished her preparations, I turned to her.

"What's the plan?" I asked, and she shooed me off as she stared into the shadows. Across from the treeline was a large wall, and a couple chunks to our left was a large gate.

"If that is the eastern gate, then we should be able to find Jessica over there," Prae said, mulling over her plan as she pointed toward a section of the wall's top. Every chunk, there was a guard placed atop of the wall to guard the city from invaders. "That must be her. This is our only chance."

"Sorry to interrupt, but who is Jessica?" I questioned, and Prae turned to me. "Remember how I said that I had a childhood friend with me when I snuck into the Library of Prophecies? That's her," my comrade answered, pointing at the guard in front of us. "If we can signal to her that it's me, she'll let us in, and we can maneuver our way through the city to get to the Library from there."

"How do we get her attention?" I asked, and Prae responded silently, holding up her bow and an arrow. Prae pulled back on the string, and there was a slightly audible _thwang_ as the arrow arced high through the night air until it landed on the stone brick block right in front of her.

"What's her name again?" I questioned Prae, who was making violent hand movements to get the girl's attention. "Jessica Sandstone," she replied, as Jessica took notice of Prae, who was now out from our cover behind the tree. Jessica waved for us to move forward, and we halted at the foot of the wall. "Now what?" I said to no one in particular.

My question was answered by ten pieces of ladder falling from the other side of the wall. I placed them on the wall as I climbed up rung by rung, and reached the top. "Who the hell are you?" interrogated Jessica as I slumped over, free from sight of the other guards as every other one was in a shelter, and Jessica was one of the ones in between. Prae climbed over the edge of the wall, and soon we were all on the walkway suspended above the outskirts of Magnam Civitatem, the Lost Colony.

The architecture was magnificent. The buildings lined the streets with elegance, every few meters on the street were enlightened by lanterns. There seemed to be no need for a sun, as there was plenty of light to go around without it. About fifteen streets in front was the Tower of Magic, as Prae had referred to it, which seemed to stretch up to the anvil level.

"Why would you ever want to leave here?" I asked Prae, baffled by this ingenuity that I had prieviously thought non-existent. "I told you, the army is corrupt. We'll have to fight them on the way in," she replied.

Jessica Sandstone was bewildered, and seemed to whip her head around more times than before possible. She did have a predicament on her hands, as to what surprised her more: her friend returning after a year or her bringing a mysterious stranger with her. "What are you doing here, Prae? And you still haven't given me your name!" she growled at me. If looks could kill, I would have been vaporized on the spot.

"Jessica, this is Alex Glowstone," Prae responded calmly, but to no avail; Jessica's gasp of surprise was probably unsurpassed by any other from that period onward. "The Glowstone?" she gaped, and honestly I was surprised that she had even gotten those words out. Prae nodded with a sort of confidence, and Jessica seemed to have turned to trust me and gone extremely grave in two seconds flat.

"What do you need me to do? And please, please take me with you, wherever you are going when you get out of here," Jessica pleaded, desperate to escape the corrupt city.

"Jessica, we need to get to the Library of Prophecies so that Alex can find the Prophecy of Minecraftia. And we need to hurry; there are two men knocked out a couple hundred blocks away in the outskirts of the forest, and they'll know that we escaped," rambled Prae, now antsy and gripping Murder with anxiety.

"What, did you fall for the desert temple?" Jessica responded, and Prae nodded curtly. "That's a new trap; you're lucky you didn't come before when they had the fake Testificate village in place. That was a monster. Anyway let's get down to business. Map, assemble quickest route to the Tower of Magic with minimal guard activity." Jessica was now holding a map with a faint purplish glow to it. She held it up for the two of us to see. "It's a new device for members of the army," she explained, staring at it for a moment. "And it works like magic."

"Route calculated. Line drawn onto main map," said an electronic female voice. I realized that it was actually the map. "OK, since the stairways are guarded on both sides, we're going to have to take the dropoff," Jessica announced, and glanced over on her side, where a steep drop became a dark alleyway in the outskirts of the city.

"Ladies first," I joked, and Prae's normal bubbly attitude had become serious for the growing fight. She slid feet-first down the wall, and landed on her feet at the bottom. I jumped off the wall, and landed next to her when Jessica came falling down next to me. "Follow me," she commanded, and led us through the city.

Our route through the city led us through many twists and turns in dark alleyways, and I was beginning to get nervous about when the Sergeant and Private would wake outside in the woods. Nevertheless, I remained focused on moving through the night, sticking to the shadows and only moving when Jessica told Prae and I to. Creeping along the streets, Jessica suddenly held up her hand tightened into a fist as we entered another alleyway.

"Guards, just past the entrance on the other side of this alley to the next main street. Take them out quietly," she ordered, sounding like a military captain. I supposed that maybe she was, just of smaller rank. Prae and I stalked forward to the two guards idling at the entrance to the street, holding their diamond swords at the side.

I nodded to Prae and gripped the head of the one on the right. They might be wearing all iron clad armor, but that couldn't keep me from snapping their neck. We placed their bodies down in the darkness of the alley, and noticed that Prae did not give a salute.

"Why aren't you paying your respects?" I questioned.

"There are no respects to pay for those who never earned the honor," she responded, and we turned back to Jessica to receive our next orders.

When we finally were a block away from the base of the tower, we stopped in the middle of a dark alley. Except for the one pair of guards earlier, there had been no predicaments in our adventure through the city's depths. Now that we were so close to the Library, there were about ten guards on our side of the tower with iron armor and diamond swords, standing menacingly as if daring us to take a shot at entering the tower.

"There is no way that we will be able to get past all of those guards. What we need is a distraction," I announced grimly, and as if on cue, loudspeakers of some sort blared across the entire city.

"_We have been breached. I repeat, we have been breached. This is Defense Director Victor Bedrock, reporting that we have been breached. Two army officers were found trying to make their way back into the city, and claimed to have been knocked out by a Level 1 Enemy of the City. Be on the sharp lookout for Praecordia Soulsand and Jessica Sandstone. All guards report to lockdown stations around the city._"

There was no way out. We would be stuck in here forever. One good thing had happened, though; all of the guards in our way thundered down the street towards the Magnam Civitatem walls, in hope that they could keep us in until we starved to death.

"C'mon, this way!" ordered Jessica, and we dashed into the open doors of the Tower. There was a staircase on the left, and on the right was a door marked _The Library of Prophecies_. This was it! I would finally find my fate, even if I died in the process. We stepped forward, and I opened the door. I stepped into the dimly lit hallway, and Prae followed.

Not a moment after Prae had stepped in than an alarm begin to wail, and the wooden door was broken. Instead, an iron chain gate rolled into place, sealing Prae and I into the passageway that led to the hallway. Jessica stood on the other side, rattling the chains to try and get through. "NO!" she screamed. "I'M NOT LOSING YOU AGAIN, PRAE!"

"Jessica! Go!" Prae yelled from beside me. "The guards will be here soon! If you can escape, then we'll be able to find you in the wild when we make it out! Now hurry, they'll be here any second!"

And with that, Prae's only childhood friend dashed out from the Tower and back out onto the street. Not a moment too soon, in fact, as a group of ten soldiers hurried down the stairs of the tower, led by two men who I presumed to be the Mayor and the Defense Director.

"So, Praecordia, you have returned," chanted Stonebrick calmly, twirling a diamond sword in his hand. "And for what reason, it can't be great enough, for you will die from my defenses. For it seems, child, that you are stuck!"

"Yeah, but we're stuck on the side we need to be!" I retorted mockingly, sticking up for Prae.

"You will die, though, my foolish young friend! Wait, where are you going?" Stonebrick called, due to us dashing down the chamber to the Library of Prophecies.

"Well, it could help if we had this thing open so we could pursue them!" the Mayor spat, and one of the many guards behind him hurried back up the stairs to flick the switch so that the miniature army could follow Prae and I. Stonebrick slammed his fist into the wall and muttered, "I will not be thwarted by two underserving children."

And it seemed that he would do anything to make sure that would not happen.

**Now that we have human interference, the story's heating up. Will Alex and Prae make it through the tunnels to the Library of Prophecies? Will Alex finally learn his destiny? And will they even escape Magnam Civitatem to see life again? All these and more questions will be answered when the next chapter is posted for The Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	7. The Library of Prophecies

** Hello once more, faithful readers (And newbies, you're welcome too.)!**

** I have spent much of my time since the last update working on all my beta guidelines, and two days ago was the magic day; I am now eligible for beta! I am at the moment avalible for Minecraft, Harry Potter, and Call of Duty (Preferrably Nazi Zombies, but there's no option for that). Please request my service in a PM if you wish, and once I get back to you, send me a DocX and we'll get to work!**

** Even though most of my last two and a half days was dedicated to the beta working, I had enough time to put together the longest chapter in TPoM history! That's right, folks; the story alone is more than 5,600 words long, nine pages in my word processor. So congratulations to me!**

** Now, in typical Jimmy Fallon fashion, I am going to give out some shout-outs. That is a section every other chapter from now on where I call out three stories, at least one of which is new, to spread awareness for those authors and hopefully gain them some respect. This time, I'll do five because there are so many at the moment. My first shout-out is for FullMoonFlygon with The Miner's Destiny, a long story still in the works with over 54,000 words at the moment. My second goes to exb756 with The Gathering Storm, an interesting plot-line of rebellion and the End that fits well with the adding of conventional weapons, a good twist to a story like that. My next shout-out is for Mellifluousness with Ears to Hear Us, a really good story with a prophecy as well, gripping and it factors in the mobs as characters to interact with. Cool! Next is HappyWuppy with Epicraft, a really new SSP world documentation that shows promise and had me laughing as I read. And finally, the second new story is Two Different Worlds by Sea of Fire, a romance between the Daughter of Notch and the Son of Herobrine. Promising, and already has a few short laughs factored in.**

** Of course I had to do something Fallon related. I'm addicted to his show!**

** And onwards, with the review responses!**

**FullMoonFlygon****: A mistake that I have to live with, and for some reason I call out others making it. Rude, but true. Also, thanks for the positive review and I'm glad you like it enough the first time that you'll read it again.**

**Mellifluousness****: I joined the site a month ago, and they've changed it three times. (Shrug) What else is new? Oh yeah, the romance. I think you introduced Prae to it a little oddly.**

**PJO is the Best****: Thanks man, (or woman) I'll definitely keep updating.**

**ReliableDiamondThugFromLU****: Your name is a mouthful. Anyway, thanks, and I personally have the same job choices as you.**

**Shayor****: Post it here, you must let me read it and review cuz I will not go on that other website which you forgot to write down. And I thought you meant a new story, I remember when you first started working on TgatB and Mugglenet kept turning us down. Those ********.**

**Sea of Fire****: Yes, and it get's better from here! Full steam ahead!**

**Guest****: Glad you like the story, you should sign up for an account and start writing with those ideas! PM me when you do so I know it's you. And yes, the End is involved.**

**Senturian****: You hoped for the best, and I deliver the best, my friend. I have passed my phase of DIEMAINCHARACTERSitis, and will now be extending their lifelines. (Mischievous grin) Some will still die, however. MWAHAHAHAHA *cough, oh sorry. When you write your fan-fics, PM me and you will be able to join my community. I am building the new Magnam Army, take that all others!**

** That was really weird. I apologize to everyone, when I respond to reviews my mind gets a little hyper. So there you have it. Now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 7**

**The Library of Prophecies**

The gate had sealed us in to the depths of the city, and there was only one way for us to go: down. I glanced at Prae for reassurance, and then we began to make our way down in the middle of Mayor Stonebrick's taunting. The tunnel was dark and compressed at first, but it continually widened to the point where we could walk side by side through the eerie darkness.

Sound, instead of bouncing off the walls at a high frequency, was seemingly sucked into a vacumn effect, and we couldn't hear anything from more than ten meters away. There were torches on the walls to prevent mobs from spawning, but other than that it was very depressing.

"Was it like this when you snuck in three years ago?" I asked Prae, and she nodded her head in a sad confirmation. It certainly was gloomy, and I was happy when the passageway opened into a large room, lit with several torches.

On the wall opposite our entrance was an iron door and writing inscribed above it. The writing, written with what appeared to be white chalk, read:

_Dusk is a sign_

_Of terrible things,_

_To stay above the action,_

_Man must_

The writing stopped there, and I recognized it as an incomplete poem, maybe a riddle. I turned to Prae for guidance. "Well, I'm waiting for you. After all, you have done this before," I said mockingly.

"Well, I haven't done it physically before," Prae replied, leaving me shocked. "I mean, I have been down here, but I wasn't the one who opened the passageways."

"OK, then who did?" I asked sarcastically.

"I was in the Tower for a feast, one that celebrated the work of us twelve year-olds on completing that year of school. I mean, that is one of the most important years in our child, or was it different in Imperial Plains?"

I nodded in confirmation. The age twelve year at school was one of the most important, primarily because we learned so much about how redstone currents work, and were exposed to the fables and legends of the Nether. Of course, we never took a field trip to our place of discussion that year, but only because it was another dimension.

"Anyway," Prae continued, "Jessica and I noticed the Guardian of the Library leaving the feast a little early, presumably to come down and check on the prophecies. We followed him, watching as he did all of the work for him. And from watching, I know how to open each of the doors. This first one tests your strength in counteracting fear, the second tests your intelligence, and the third and final tests the greatest accolade of all: how to treat and work together with the people around you.

"That's why the Guardian wouldn't let Stonebrick in. He may be smart, and may not be afraid of anything. But he'll never have any true friends because of the way he treats people. The Guardian was just another example. But Stonebrick didn't get the message that he was trying to teach him. His thought process was just 'don't make a mountain out of a molehill,' and now we have a new Guardian, the previous one dead."

So she did know how to work this system. I approached the door and the writing again. "What do you think it is?" Prae questioned me, and I thought.

Presumably, the last word would have to rhyme with 'things'. I brainstormed some ideas: rings, kings, sings, wings. And I supposed that the word had to have something to do with being above. Kings were always above society as a figure to look up to, but that didn't have to do with the terrors of the night. Wings, they could keep someone above the mobs below through the night, and man would just need to-

"Grow some wings!" I exclaimed, and when Prae smiled at my correct answer, I punched the air in triumph. Alex Glowstone will not fail!

Of course, I had only figured out the answer. I still needed to know how to 'submit' it, of sorts. Prae had walked up to the door, and I noticed a faint purple aura around her as she repeated the poem, but now including the finishing line.

"Dusk is a sign of terrible things. To stay above the action, man must grow some wings," she recited, all the while staring at the chark markings with that purple aura around her. The aura grew brighter, until it burned off and the door suddenly creaked open. I stared at her in disbelief, and she shrugged. "Magic. You can do the next one, as I've given you the basic powers," she said bleakly, as if that explained everything.

Prae led the way through the first door, and I followed her. As I descended through the half-slab walkway, the door behind us slowly closed into place once more. Maybe it was an optical illusion, but the torches were brighter here than they had been in the prievious corridor.

After more walking, we reached the next room. "Remember, we might have to deal with the Magnam Army on our way out, so be careful," Prae warned me.

"They won't be able to get in, will they?" I wondered.

"Not unless they are accompanied by you, they won't. Only people with powerful storylines can make their way in, and Stonebrick has been banished from entering again. He can still get to the third door, though. But the magic of the third one is stronger; that's why the torches are brighter as we get closer to it," she responded.

Without further ado, I glanced up at the next riddle.

_The morning sun_

_Gives light to the bees._

_But to keep at bay those hostile,_

_Man must_

I thought for a moment. "I don't feel like working this one out, I did the last one. After all, they are the same inscriptions, correct?" I complained.

"I'm trying to remember... Oh, yeah! Cut down the trees!" Prae answered. "Now, just concentrate really hard on the riddle and recite it, and the door will open with your magic!"

I stared at the white chalk with all my concentration. "The morning sun gives light to the bees. But to keep at bay those hostile, man must cut down the trees," I chanted, and felt a strange tickling sensation on my sides. The door opened, and I looked down just in time to see a flash of purple light fade away.

"That was... interesting," I commented slowly, stunned by that strange happening. Nevertheless, Prae was already starting down the next chamber, and I worried that if I didn't get through the door soon enough, it would shut me off. So I stepped through and started back down another hallway.

The torches were literally burning my eyes with light. They gave a flickering, red glow to everything in their path, and the darkness from the first tunnel had been replaced by a feeling of walking on the sun. So maybe I was exagerrating, but seriously; who cares?

I reached the final door a couple seconds after Prae. She was already examining it, and thinking about what the answer was. She muttered something as I reached her, and the purple aura blinded us once more as the iron door swung open.

"I'll lead this time," I suggested, and Prae stepped aside as I walked through the door, empty-handed. I would finally be able to listen to the prophecy that determined my life. I just had to come through these doors.

I would have without a problem, if it weren't for an iron sword swinging past me, grazing my left arm in the process. I looked to the left of the entrance to the Library to see a face with a crooked nose and green eyes, wearing flowing white robes and holding an iron sword stained with fresh blood. _My blood._

I looked down at my arm, expecting the graze I had described before. Instead, there was a deep gash, and I was loosing blood fast. I wouldn't make it far like this. The pain was overwhelming, and I slumped to my knees, holding my arm close to my chest. My last sight was Prae bringing Murder down on the Guardian of the Library's chest, impaling him and killing him instantly.

Then I blacked out.

**TPoM**

Notch was walking along the Entrance Hall. Alex had been locked into the Library of Prophecies, and due to the events of Magnam Civitatem's betrayal to his order, it was time to do something he had never done before.

Day was breaking for the seventh of June, and Notch was holding a banquet, one week after Reckoning Day to celebrate the new citizens of the world. Of course, none of the actual citizens could be invited to the Aether for a brunch, so Notch instead held it with many of the angels; that is, past heroes or just normal Minecraftians who were good people in their time on the Overworld.

This would make a good opportunity to spread the word; news that was surely not to be taken well by the citizens of the Aether. Nevertheless, it had to be done, and Notch knew it.

He entered the Banquet Hall through a series of passages on the second floor, which carried him into a golden dungeon that he had turned into part of his residence with pictures, tables, and of course enough food for all of his guests. There was a long table, seating thirty people on the sides, and seats at either end for Notch and his brother, Herobrine. Everyone was already seated, but there was no food yet.

Notch took his seat at his end of the table and tapped his spoon on the glass. Everyone stopped talking, and Notch stood once more to adress his guests.

"Hello, past heroes of our world! It is time once more to celebrate those who have passed into adulthood, especially those who have died in the process," he started, and there was a moment of silence for all of the towns and cities who had lost their lives in the Raid of the Endermen.

Most of the people were sorry that they could not help the people in their struggle. Notch glanced around the room at those people being quiet for the losses. Syndicate sat next to AntVenom and ChimneySwift, and the trio that were usually laughing and making jokes were very grave. Salted had his eyes closed, and everyone seemed to paying their respects. Notch caught his brother's eyes, and Herobrine nodded. The two had discussed it, and Herobrine ahd thought it necessary that Notch tell the angels their predicament.

"Now, let the feast begin!" he announced warmly, and the platters and plates were filled with sausages, hams, eggs, toasts, hash, waffles, pancakes, and other foods. The glasses were filled with orange juice and coffee, water in some cases. The food of Earth could only be accessed in the Aether, for reasons Notch kept secret.

Everyone talked and ate, specifically discussing the latest news of the struggles in the Overworld. Most people knew of the prophecy and its contents, while others were up to date on which cities had fallen. Mt. Wolfpack was still standing, and had withstood a massive horde of zombies attempting to smash down the city's gates two days prior. Magnam Civitatem, the Lost Colony, was still under corrupt rule, and most people expected it to outlast all of the other towns due to their magic. Few of the guests knew the events taking place there at that very moment.

After everyone had had a good sized meal, Notch stood again. It was time, he supposed, to do something he had never done before. "Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for showing up to this magnificent feast. Our treasures we celebrate even out the terrors we fight.

"Unfortunately, that soon may not be the case. You may remember the severe level of insecurity we had when I first opened the Nether to Overworld and Aether, yes? Well, at that time, we used the system that they used back on Earth, the first realm. The DEFCON system, to classify the level of insecurity in their country, is used here as well. And right now, we are at DEFCON 3, like in the days where the Nether was first opened up. But now, I am afraid to say, we must go higher than that."

And with that, Notch waved his hand and a large screen appeared on the holystone wall behind him. It read DEFCON 3. "Now, we must go where we haven't before, I'm afraid." He waved his hand once more, and the three changed to a red two. "We must be prepared for the coming of these beasts, the Endermen. It is not rash, I am sad to believe, that we must give caution to all in the Aether. Hell has risen to the Overworld, and I am afraid of what will happen if we allow it to reach our dimension. Everyone will be kept in the charted areas, and we must defend our land. Everyone must be ready for battle, and everyone must have battle positions. I have set up a service setting it up outside of the Temple now, and I urge everyone to fight for our home."

There was a chaos as the guests filtered out of the Banquet Hall to sign up for defensive positions around the city. Notch watched them all leave, and turned to see his brother in his face, waiting for a response.

"You did the right thing. The public may be worried now, but at least they know what we are dealing with," Herobrine commented. "I think that it is time that you put to rest the camps in Sweden."

Notch was taken aback by this suggestion. "Brother, it has been two hundred years since I opened the portal, surely-"

"The US is setting up camps in Stockholm. It will only be a matter of time before it gets destroyed if we don't do anything about it, and I'm sure that you want to make sure that we have a way back to Earth. We have to keep the portal alive."

"But we can't rush this, I mean, to warn them of something so insecure... I'm a wanted man in their world, Herobrine!"

"Yes, but they are going to send in squads to check out the electro-magnetic fields. Their technology may not have advanced since we left, but their state of mind has! Look, you can either heed my warning, or have no escape route if the End consumes the Aether!"

"Or, we could just make ties with the people on Earth; we don't have to keep them away," suggested Notch, and Herobrine shook his head.

"Do what you will, brother, but make a decision quickly. I fear we don't have much time left," he responded, and walked out of the Banquet Hall, leaving Notch standing alone, the DEFCON sign blazing in red figures behind him. He made his decision, and left the room to do what was right.

Twisting through the corridors to get to the main landing of the second floor, Notch took a deep breath. He was about to visit a place he hadn't seen in two hundred years. Nevertheless, he opened the door to the Room of Knowledge.

Inside, there were multiple diagrams and books containing information on the dimensions and entities of Minecraftia. Notch walked over to the display of Earth. It read: _Earth, the First Realm. Where we all come from. Enter the code to know more._ Underneath this, there was a keypad for someone to punch in a set of numbers to access the next room.

Notch punched in the code, 7-3-9-1, and the wall slid open to reveal a hallway leading to the Earth room. On the walls were drawings and descriptions all about the different cities, mechanisms, creations, and even weapons native to the First Realm. Notch walked through the corridor, which he had created and written on in his first days permanently in Minecraftia to give him a glimpse at home.

At last, he reached the actual room. There was an entire other library dedicated to books on Earth, designs, ideas, and history off the planet. In the center of the room was a frame, similar to a Nether or Aether portal frame, but it was made of chrome. Chrome, which couldn't be accessed in this new world, but Notch had created the portal through sciences he had spent his life developing on Earth. It was only coincidence that it was in the Aether. Notch walked up to it and put down a sapling. The inside of the frame became a green portal, similar to an Aether or Nether one, but green. Notch stepped into the portal and braced himself, for he was entering the First Realm for the first time in two hundred years.

**TPoM**

I woke on the cold stone floor. I had broken into a cold sweat, even though I hadn't dreamt of anything. It was instant afte five seconds that the cold, fever-like feeling that I felt transitioned into boiling, white hot pain in my left arm. The blood was running all over it, and it was overwhelming to look at it.

The landscape around me came into focus as I sat up, but only with some effort. I was in the opening chamber of the Library of Prophecies. The walls to my back were stone, but in front of me was a long aisle, lined with bookcases and more aisles branching off. There was someone talking, but I couldn't make it out. I concentrated hard on the sound.

"Alex! Alex, can you hear me?" I heard Prae yelling.

I felt my lips move, but I couldn't hear my response. I tried to say "Watch out, the Guardian is trying to kill us!", but I wasn't sure if she heard me.

Prae came into focus in front of me, staring at my wound with a gruesome look. "I'll clean it up, just hold still," she told me, and I hung my arm limp at my side as she wrapped my arm up in cloth. "Where'd you get that?" I questioned, my hearing now restored.

"The Guardian had it stored away. He also had this, drink it," Prae responded, giving me a flask of potion. I recognized it as a Potion of Regeneration, and I gulped the liquid down using my free hand. It tasted good, and I slowly felt my wound's pain seeping away like water down a drain.

Murder was at my side, stained with more blood at the tip. I took it that Prae had already taken care of the Guardian, so we were home-free in this room now. My arm felt better, and I stood up, unwrapping the cloth from my arm. Honestly, I didn't want the Guardian to have anything to do with me after that showmanship. The wound was still recognizable, but the blood had been cleaned up by Prae and was left as just a gash, nothing coming out of it. I supposed that I could give it some more treatment later, but with the potion bubbling inside of me, it was a minor problem for now.

"There won't be anyone else to deal with, right?" I asked Prae, and she nodded.

"Like I said before, they won't be able to get in unless you are accompanying them on the way in," she answered, confirming my protection.

"Well, I suppose the only thing to do now is work our way around to try and find the Prophecy," I suggested, but Prae shook her head.

"Your prophecy is a lot more important then the others, so they kind of have it on display," she notified me, and I walked over to the aisle, where a stand held a book titled 'The Prophecy of Minecraftia'.

Now was the moment, I would finally learn my fate. Feeling the cover of the book, I opened it on the spine to read the prophecy. There was the title again on the first page, this time written in scrawly red letters. I turned the page, and examined my fate, written in the same handwriting in red.

_Centuries from this time_

_Under a new ruler's gaze_

_Man will be challenged_

_In a damaged world's phase._

_A black, stone figure_

_Will rise from the ground._

_It will control it's entities_

_And spread terror all around._

_It will plague those innocent_

_And make them join it's fight._

_It will have total control_

_Over mobs who'd take their flight._

_When the terror has been stretching_

_A man will choose his path._

_Bearing the name of the rock that gives light_

_He will stand up to the Enderman's wrath._

_The three greatest cities of the land_

_Shall salute the world and fall._

_The man will visit every last one_

_And herald survivors from them all._

_Of three to be chosen_

_To accompany the man,_

_One will backstab him_

_And one will die in a different land._

_The man will learn the origins_

_Of the monster that he fights._

_He will travel to their homeland_

_And step into the everlasting night._

_He will conquer the End_

_Through brains, brawn, and soul._

_And once he sets free his people_

_He will become Lord of his world whole._

The book suddenly felt heavy in my hands. "You read this before, didn't you?" I questioned Prae, still looking at the book. I turned to her, and she nodded slightly. "The three to be chosen to accompany me, does that mean that you are one of them?"

"Well, I would suppose so considering how long I've lasted with you," she responded.

"OK, enough fooling around. We have to get out of here," I announced, and then stowed the book away in my backpack and readied Ocelot. "I have a feeling we're going to meet some heavy resistance."

Prae slipped on an iron helmet, the only armor she had, and gripped Murder with intensity. We walked over to the iron door together, and I made sure that there was no one in that hall yet. Glancing back at Prae, I got a brief look at the Guardian of the Library. There was a large slash across his chest and his throat had been impaled with Murder, leaving a large bloody hole. I turned away in disgust and forced open the iron door from the inside.

We were back in the cold tunnels, and I looked up to see what the final riddle had been.

_A lone survivor_

_Can always be on the rise._

_But when choosing allies,_

_Man must_

"Be cautious and wise," Prae finished, noticing me looking up at the riddle. That suited Prae as almost a role call.

Nevertheless, we continued up the stone hallway up the second iron door, and I opened it. There, inside that room, were two Magnam Army members waiting for us. They raised their diamond swords and took slashes at the two of us. However, their bulky iron armor slowed them down, so Prae and I were able to easily evade the swings.

"There is no way out, fugitives," the one on the left taunted, and I willed Ocelot to make a nasty cut across his arm. He gripped it, and clearly I had damaged it as he only swung his sword half-heartedly after that. I dodged the blow, and bashed him with the side of Ocelot in the face, where he fell over onto the ground, his nose broken and knocked out cold.

Prae was waiting, her opponent down on the ground, his right iron legging completely severed and a nasty gash in place, which grazed him along his left arm. He was clutching his leg,and we advanced forward.

The next hallway was darker, like it had been before. If there had forces down there, I was worried about what might be ahead. I glanced down at where my arm had been cut before, and all that was left was a long scar. Unfortunately, the potion's bubbly effect inside of me had worn off, so I expected that was as far that I could recover.

I held Ocelot in front of me, and I stalked ahead with Prae at my side. Her face was worried, and I could imagine why; her childhood best friend had been possibly exiled, stuck in a city full of her enemies. I believed that Jessica would be able to get away, though; she seemed tough enough, and she had gotten a head start.

We reached the final iron door, and I glanced through the small portholes to see if there were any guards. Sure enough, there were two just like the ones in the prievious chamber. I looked back at Prae.

"Did the Guardian have any other potions on him?" I asked, and Prae nodded.

"I took three Regenerations and three Harmings, but obviously we used one Regeneration on you," she confirmed.

"Give me one of the Harmings," I asked her, and she pulled out a flask full of a black fluid. I thrusted open the door, and the army members raised their diamond swords from the other side of the room. However, I tossed the potion at the ground in front of them, and it splashed all over them. The guards crumpled over in pain, and we gave them both a good kick in the face to make sure that they stayed there.

Ocelot was held in front of me with internal concentration. I was on a battlefield now, and every sense of mine had become one hundred times more sensitive. Every move anything unregistered in my mind made, and I focused on that position, making sure it wasn't hostile. At last, we reached the exit of the Library, and the iron gate had been slid aside. However, there was no one there.

"I was expecting more resistance than this," Prae acknowledged, and I nodded in agreement. There was no one in the entrance hall of the Tower of Magic, and it was very suspicious. Prae walked over to the door, opened it, and gasped. "Oh my Notch. Alex, take a look at this. I'm pretty sure this is why," she gaped through an open mouth. I trudged over to the open door and looked outside.

It _was_ a battlefield out there. Buildings were on fire, bodies littered the streets, and members of the Magnam Army were locked in combat with citizens of the city. "Civil war. I never thought it would come to this," thought Prae aloud.

"I guess we'll need another way out," I muttered, and we began to climb the stairs up to the top of the tower. They went in a spiral, getting smaller and smaller as the tower got thinner and thinner. Eventually, we reached the door to the roof. I gave Prae a signal, and we kicked it down.

Standing there was Jonathan Stonebrick himself. He was only wearing his mayor uniform, a button down shirt with long dress pants, and no armor. His arm hung at his side, gripping a diamond sword. "I suppose it was a matter of time before this happened. Never mind, it will just be a slaughtering of the people. My army is just to great to be taken down by civilians," he spat bitterly, his back turned to us.

Slowly, he turned to face our duo, and sighed. "Why do the young ones have to die? Why can't you stick to what you were brought up to believe, and not go off on wild journeys to prove your superiors wrong? It could be much simpler, but," the mayor started, raising his sword at this point, "You have to die anyway."

He took a slash at Prae, but I whipped Ocelot in the way, and the two swords clashed, showering sparks all over the walkway of the top of the space needle. We pressed the swords into each other, a mass amount of friction creating multiple sparks. I dropped my sword's aim down, and his went flying from pressure, and while Stonebrick had lost his balance, I slashed him in the chest with Ocelot. He fell on the ground of the roof, his arms at his side and his sword toppling over the railing to the street below. "Maybe we will die, but not young," I told him bitterly, as his eyes rolled.

"Fulfill your prophecy then, Glowstone. You will die, and you will remember my parting words when you do," the mayor said between breaths, and his eyes turned glassy as he lost his life.

"The lying scoundrel, he has no honor at all," Prae spat from beside me, kicking him in the side, as if to hurt him when he was already dead.

I averted my eyes from the dead man, and they caught a glimpse of a chest on a couple meters away. I opened it, and inside were two cloud parachutes. "Aether cloud, never thought I'd glimpse one in my life," admired Prae, taking one and pulling it onto her back. "You know how to work them, right?" she asked me.

"Of course I do, how simple is it?" I replied, closing the chest and strapping mine on. We both climbed on top of the railing and spectated the scenery below. There was smoke and fire everywhere, a full scale rebellion. The castle gates were pretty far away, and it looked like I would have to fly into the fight before we would be able to get out, even with a wind in our favor on the parachute.

"Well, I suppose we're going to have to jump," I commented nervously, and held my hand up in a five, slowly ticking down the seconds with my fingers. Once I closed my fist, I took a deep breath and launched myself into the early morning air.

My first thought as the wind pummeled me at every section of my body was that I was going to either be flattened on the street or be burnt alive. I fumbled my hands around for the cord, and gave a big pull to release the parachute. Using the air to keep my above the ground, I leaned forward to drift in the direction of the city gates. The less time Prae and I spent on the road, the better.

I looked back to see where Prae was. She was a couple meters behind and above me, on the same pace and headed in the right direction. Turning back forward, I concentrated hard on making sure that we landed on a street.

At last, my feet touched the cobblestone street, and the parachute closed itself in on top of me. After some flailing around, I caught a glimpse of daylight through the cloth and widened the hole, letting myself out and unstrapping the parachute in the process. Prae was shaking her's off, after making a much more graceful landing. I readied Ocelot for what seemed like the millionth time that day, and we headed down the street.

About a hundred meters away from one of the gateways, unfortunately not the one we had entered through, I stopped at the side of a shop. There were newspapers there, today's edition, all reading June 7th. I had been an adult for almost a week, and my life had been threatened numerous times. Surely, I felt older now that I'd killed a man, but my heart knew that Stonebrick deserved it. I looked around at the city around me, in mass chaos, and blamed him and his dictatorship for the rebellion.

"I hope that Jessica made it out alright," muttered Prae humbly, and I turned to face her.

"If the stories you tell are true, and the Jessica this morning was the Jessica of normal times, then I'm sure that she made it out OK," I reassured her, and we continued out.

Once out the gates, we paused to get a sense of direction. "We entered through the North gate, and this must be..." Prae thought for a moment, watching the sun hovering above the sky, climbing its way up to noon. "The east entrance. We'll head this way, is that a good idea?"

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Let's get going, I don't like the looks of this rebellion," I responded. As if on cue, there was a large explosion at the top of the Tower of Magic. Someone had set off TNT there. The two of us marched away from the battle, and made our way through the forest.

It was noon when we reached the edge, and we stopped to eat some food. The morning had been eventful, and I cracked open the book to read the prophecy once more.

"To some degree, I wish I hadn't read it because it worries me," I announced worriedly, stowing the book away back in my backpack.

"We'll have it all figured out in the end, I can guarantee that," Prae responded, and I reluctantly agreed with her. Ironic how she said that, when the prophecy said to conquer 'the End'. Maybe it was something to do with the Endermen, like their homeland that I was supposed to travel to or something. It was all making a mess in my head, so I decided to think on it later.

After all, Prae was right. It would all make sense in the end.

**Things are definitely heating up now, and after a long wait, we finally know Alex's prophecy! Oh yeah, and it turns out that Earth does exist after all? What is this about a war, and Stockholm, and **_**two hundred years?!**_

__**What is Notch up to that Herobrine urges him to warn the US military? Whatever happened to Jessica? What will happen to Magnam Civitatem? And will the Aether's precausions pay off in the end? Find out some of **_**these**_** questions, and a whole lot more, next time in The Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	8. The Man on the Pig

** Hello again, faithful readers!**

** The story has taken a twist, and we are definitely aware of a larger presence of action and adventure as the plot begins to unfold. Prae and Alex had just escaped Magnam Civitatem when we left off; what will happen next?**

** Also, the updates will be slower for about a week, so beware! I will most certainly write as much as I can, although this chapter is visibly shorter than the last. Also, we are approaching 40,000 words, which would put me in the elite group of what is currently only five stories in this fan fiction section. I shall make it, and I will go farther than that!**

** Also, the next OC winner will be announced right after the break!**

** That was short. Anyway, congratulations to Curtisimo, with his character, and unfortunately the only male OC (for now).**

** Onwards, with the review responses!**

**Mellifluousness****: I fixed all of the things that you pointed out, much to the expense of my time and energy. Hurumph. Nah, I'm just kidding, it wasn't a big deal. The quote from Notch (which I wrote) means that for all of the good things in life, there are an equal amount of bad things that we must fend off for the good of society.**

**Sea of Fire****: I think that the effect of having real YouTubers involved as Notch's friends in Aether really enhances the story, instead of having more people that I made up living up there. Isn't it cooler to see Syndikate and Salted inscribed in print rather than Daniel Sandstone and Rocky Lavaflow? And didn't you know that this is actual history?**

**Curtisimo****: The story has become a fight to be reckoned with! (Haha, reckoned. Like Reckoning Day) And you should be excited; we shall now learn your master-mind's creation!**

** So, we didn't that many reviews in four days since the last update. I'm disappointed in you guys. Where are you when I need you?! *Weep/Cry**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 8**

**The Man on the Pig**

Magnam Civitatem was far behind us now. It was hard for me to forget the raging fires of rebellion against the Magnam Army, and I hoped that Jessica was safe. I believed she was, I wasn't just saying that to calm Prae down. The civilians would probably be happy to know that I had slain their corrupted leader. I say would because of the explosion that more than likely blew his body to pieces.

Prae and I continued along a river that snaked through some rolling hills that we had found on the edge of the forest. Along the way I collected some pork from pigs so that we could make some more food later. It was definitely a concern that our reserves were running low.

The river wound through some ten different tall hills, each with an oak tree sitting tall at the top, before it flowed into an ocean at the edge of the mountains. I couldn't see how far the ocean was, and Prae didn't seem to have a sense of direction here. We were in completely new territory.

"First things first, what is our objective at this point?" I questioned Prae, and she shrugged. "I suppose that it would be to wait out everything and collect more supplies and such while we acquire two more people to join our group," she suggested.

That made sense, I supposed. The prophecy said that I would have three people to accompany me on my journey, and I safely said that Prae was number one. But who else could be joining me? Would we eventually find Jessica, or would someone new take her place?

"I guess that we should walk around the edge of the ocean to look for a good place to camp out. Its already about four o' clock, and I don't want to get caught in the night with mobs being controlled by the Endermen," Prae continued, and I nodded in agreement. There really wasn't much else for us to do.

After wandering along the edge of the water for two hours, we came to a small peninsula that branched off the mountain range into the water. It was about 20X20, and I walked onto it, feeling that this was an applicable spot for our next residency.

We set to work furnishing up a home. Both of us decided that this would be just another shack, as this was very exposed and we would just use it for the night. "At some point soon, I think that we should set up a permanent home, with magic obscuring it from mobs. You might know how to do that, right?" I asked Prae, and she nodded.

"It is very advanced, but I have seen it been done on field trips before. It should take me about five hours, but once I get the hang of it, it should go by faster," she replied, and we both agreed not to use it on this site because of our limited amount of time.

The house was complete. Like the last one, it was 6X6 with a triangle roof, so it looked like an actual home. I placed some torches on the sides as it was getting dark, the sun beginning to set over the mountains that we had come from. Once it was done, we both shut the door and went inside. I placed a bed, a workbench, and a furnace that I made on the spot on my side of the room, and began to smelt the pork I had collected.

While Prae ate some of our leftover steak, I propped open my journal and held it up to a torch next to my bed on an angle that Prae wouldn't see. There had been a couple of events I thought notable to write down.

_June 7th_

_ Once Prae and I escaped our captors last night, we infiltrated Magnam Civitatem with the help of Prae's childhood friend, Jessica. Together, we snuck through the city, but Prae and I got locked in the Library of Prophecies and left Jessica to go. I think she got away using the chaos that followed as cover._

_ Inside the Library there was the Guardian, who cut my arm with his sword. The gash was bad at first, but using some potion of Regeneration that he had had, it is just a scar now. I don't think that it will ever fade, though. We obtained the book that contains my prophecy and escaped. The prophecy scares me, though. Supposedly, the next step is to find two more people to join me on my adventure._

_ Magnam Civitatem erupted in rebellion against their corrupt leader, Stonebrick, and his army. The city was on fire with emotion, literally, and I slayed Stonebrick on our escape. I also tried parachuting with Aether clouds for the first time. Not my preferred type of transportation, but it was still pretty cool._

_ Now we are nomads again, awaiting the people to join us. I wonder who they will be, and I hope Jessica is alright for Prae's sake._

_~Alex Glowstone_

I closed the book up and placed it back in my backpack, which was sitting at the side of my bed. Hopefully we wouldn't be attacked tonight. I bade Prae goodnight quietly, for she was already asleep, and settled down under my covers.

The next morning, I woke without incident. Prae was sitting on her bed, making sure everything was packed away. "Good morning," I yawned, surprised that I had slept the entire night without anything happening. She returned the greeting, and I put my things away as well. We were about to take down the shack when there was a knocking on the door.

"Hello? Is there anyone in there?" a voice said from outside, and I had to trust it because it was human. I walked over to the door and opened it to find a boy standing there.

Or rather, sitting there, as he was on top of a pig with a saddle. He had brownish-blond hair, which matched his plain brown eyes. He was outfitted in entirely leather armor, and held an iron sword at his side, which hung lazily to and fro past his pig's tail.

"Name's Willheim Mycylium, Will for short!" he announced, holding his other hand out to me, and I grasped it and shook. He seemed nice, though I had never seen anyone actually curtailing around on top of a pig, though I knew it was possible.

"Seventeen years, old, though I'll soon be older! And this here is Timothy," he addressed his pig with a wave of his hand, and Timothy oinked timidly.

"Um, I'm Alex Glowstone, and that's Prae Soulsand," I told him uncertainly, and he smiled.

"You'll be pleased to know I have a better place for you guys to stay! I'm a nomad myself, which I'm guessing you two are based on your humble abode," he began, waving his hand at the shack to emphasize his point, "However, I found this nice little village that I've been staying in for a couple days after some, er, wounds."

"If you're staying at a village, why are you here exploring?" Prae asked solemnly. I had the feeling she didn't trust Will.

"I can't just stay in their inn free of charge! I came out to get them some stone to pay for another day, when I came across you guys. I've already got three stacks, so you guys can both have a night free," he answered, not aware of Prae's uncertainty.

We packed up our stuff and took down the house, and I glanced at the sky. It was about nine o' clock, and Will led the way to the town.

"How long have you guys been nomads?" Will asked out of curiosity as we traveled along the edge of the water.

"About a year," answered Prae slowly. Yeah, she definitely did not trust this guy.

"A week," I said curtly. I was probably the newbie, for it seemed that Will had been on the run for a while. At the edge of his breastplate was the end of a white shirt. His slightly tanned arms were cut badly all over, some just scratches and others very long cuts that ran down his forearm.

"I've been on the run for four years, and met Timothy here two years ago. I've seen some crazy stuff though, so it seems I'm a lot older. So don't cross me, I know how to unleash hell," he warned. But that didn't make sense.

"If you've been on the run since you were thirteen, how did you get your last name?" I questioned, and it seemed it wasn't a good question to ask.

"Well, I, I lived in a mushroom biome for a while. I don't want to talk about it," he replied, waving his hand in dismissal. That was the end of that, I supposed.

We continued in silence, Timothy trailing just behind Will on the sandy beach. It seemed I had touched on a sensitive subject.

"Here we are! Sleepy Hollow, the town on the edge of the forest," announced Will, awakened out of his demotivated trance. The small beach we were walking on faded into a village on the side of the ocean. There was a single street that ran through the way we came, with a sign at the front that said '_Welcome to Sleepy Hollow_'. On the left of the street was the inn, a small restaurant, and a black smith. On the right were three houses, one with a farm in the back, one with pens of animals, and the last with the entrance to a mine.

"There are no forms of currency here. Everyone works together, and their only income is from people like us staying in the inn, eating at the restaurant, or buying weapons and armor at the blacksmith. That is why I was collecting stone; a stack of cobblestone is enough for one night. I suppose that you two can have some, here," he explained, and then handed us both a stack each. We thanked him, and he said he was going to go up to his room to construct some things.

"This town seems nice, don't you think?" I wondered, and Prae nodded.

"I suppose that we could stick around for a bit, but I don't trust him," she answered. "The prophecy talks about someone betraying you, and another dying-"

"What if you're the one who betrays me?" I spat, turning to her. There was no answer. Good, that shut her up. I would have who I wanted to join my team join. After all, whatever was going to happen had to happen at some point.

All bitters aside, we walked down the short street and took in the scenery. The houses seemed well made, and it definitely was a homey atmosphere. The road ended at the other side with a fence, across from a large forest. I decided that we should rent a room in the inn, so we walked into the building.

The walls were wooden with paintings to give it a comforting atmosphere. There was a small brick fireplace on the left, and a spiral staircase on the right. In the front was a small desk with a book and quill lying out in the open. From a door behind the desk walked in a middle-aged man, smiling with greeting as he walked up to the desk and picked up the quill.

"Welcome to the Sleepy Hollow Inn! I'm Mr. Mossstone, what can I do for you folks?" the man said cheerfully, and waited for our response.

"We'll have two rooms for one night stays, please. Anything you have," I answered, handing him the two stacks of cobblestone. Mr. Mossstone took the payment gratefully.

"Second floor, first two rooms on the left. Pleasure doing business with you guys!" he thanked us cheerfully. From there, he inscribed some notes in the book, and walked back through the door. Prae and I stepped over to the spiral staircase and climbed up to the second floor. There were three floors, though I doubted that all three were ever used at once.

I walked into the second door, Prae in the first, and plopped down on the bed that came in the room. There was another door in the wall that led into Prae's room. Around the bed was a large chest, a furnace, a workbench, and a window overlooking the plains and forest facing away from the ocean. There was also a picture of a large sailboat made of wool and wood on the wall, and I imagined sailing away from my fate aboard one.

Unfortunately, that day would not be coming soon. The sun was already hanging over the western horizon, indicating the coming dusk. I was already tired; I really did not feel like doing anything right now. I decided that Prae and I would have to recruit Will officially before the night faded, so I set out to find Will at the moment.

Once outside on the street, I saw Will on the other side talking to another one of the townspeople. I was about to walk over, when Prae spoke at my side, much to my surprise.

"I guess we should take him up. We'll have to have four people at some point," she muttered in my ear so that Will wouldn't notice from across the street.

"I was about to just now. We'll head out in the morning, and what from there?" I responded, and she shrugged.

"We pretty much have to wait out the storm until we have a group of four, and then carry out what we think needs to happen next from there," she answered, and we both began to walk toward Will, who was walking back to the hotel after his conversation with one of the civilians.

"Will, can we have a moment?" Prae requested, and Will stopped in his tracks and turned to us.

"If you want help, I'll be leaving tomorrow morning. That was a one time deal this morning, and I'm leaving. No more nightly pays from me, thank you very much," he told us bitterly.

"We're leaving tomorrow as well. We wanted to see if you wanted to work with us when we set out. We're not your average adventure team, for your information; we have much bigger matters on our hands," I replied, ignoring his rude comment. I felt like a salesman talking like this. Why had he gone so bitter all of a sudden?

"I work alone. So get lost," he spat, and then stormed past us into the inn. Timothy was resting outside on the edge of the street, his saddle marking him as loyal to Will as his mood swings.

"What's up with him today?" I sputtered, surprised at the change of pace of our so-called alliance.

"Who knows. We'll just set out then tomorrow morning," Prae replied, confused as much as I was. We would just have to find more people elsewhere. I didn't know any of the townspeople, so I decided that it would be pointless to try to recruit any of them. We continued back into the inn and entered our respective rooms, opening the door that branched between them. The sun was beginning to set, and my drowsiness was getting ahead of me. I pulled out my journal and wrote an entry.

_June 8th_

_ When we were taking down our house in the morning, a nomad found us and brought us to a village called Sleepy Hollow. His name was Willheim Mycylium, and he had found us in our small shack by the ocean. He has a pet pig named Timothy, as well._

_ Once in Sleepy Hollow, we tried to convince him to join us. He was bitter though, as if we had done something wrong, and refused to work with us. So we're on our own again in the morning, like old times._

_ Who knows what's going to happen to us. The stress from the prophecy is mounting, and I wished that I understood Will's problem. So I suppose that I should go tomorrow, and that we need to make a permanent household. But for now, this bed in the Sleepy Hollow Inn is really making me sleepy. So, good night._

_~Alex Glowstone_

No sooner had I slipped my backpack on top of the chest and placed my book inside it did I fall asleep in the comfortable bed.

I was interrupted in the middle of the night. The room was dark, and my covers had turned an icy cold. Through the window, I could see it was still night, and there was a considerable amount of mobs wandering around in the wild plains. I turned to the door between my room and the hallway to see two purple slits of light hanging above the ground.

It was an Enderman.

I scrambled out of bed as it slashed at where I had been, ripping the blanket in two. It stood at the door, not daring to let me through. Grabbing my backpack, I pressed myself against the window with Ocelot in my hand, shaking with fright. The being took another slash, and I ducked as it shattered the window.

The Enderman never should have done that. I easily jumped backward to the ground, and hastily outfitted myself with my boots and helmet. I needed better armor, so I decided that once we were home free, I would build myself some more.

The Enderman teleported down next to me, and I took a swipe at it with Ocelot. It vanished and left a trail of purple particles that obscured my vision. When they faded, I saw it a couple feet away, about to take another shot at me. I lifted Ocelot and defended the hit, and then lifted up the iron sword and drove it right through the monster's chest.

It screamed in an enraged fury, but the blow was too powerful; it sank to the ground and exploded with more of the purple particles, leaving nothing but a turquoise pearl. A substance swirled mysteriously inside of it, and I stowed it quickly away in my backpack.

I had slain the mobs leader; what would happen now?

Once inside the street on the city, I observed five townspeople fighting alongside Will and Timothy. There was a dead body of one of the people I didn't know next to the farmer's house, and Prae was pinning back some mobs as she fought her way out of the hotel courtyard. Once she reached me, she clasped my shoulder.

"Where's the Enderman? We need to kill it," she said, and I shook her off.

"It's a done deal. Now what?" I queried, just as the mobs all seemed to grip their heads, as if going insane. Cries of pain went through all of them, and some fell to the ground, and some attacked whatever was in front of them, even their own comrades. When the shockwave ended, the mob's eyes all glowed purple and they slowly walked away. I got a terrifying image of a purple-eyed creeper walking by me, brushing me on the shoulder as if I didn't notice.

Everyone knew not to attack any of them. It must be them taking orders from a different Enderman now, that was the problem. Of course, a human can have only so much control over a pig, as Timothy ran past Will's restraints to attack a zombie that was retreating.

"Timothy, stay back!" Will yelled in fright, but it was too late; the pig head-butted the zombie in question, and every mob turned around, frozen in position.

"Brace yourself," I muttered to Prae, who was gripping Murder in front of her the same way I held Ocelot.

"Notch bless them," she answered, and the mobs broke into a run after us, the skeletons shooting arrows in every direction and creepers blowing up at random. We fended off the attacks, and I wielded Ocelot with a power I had not known that I had before. The mobs were subject to my cries of fury, and I slashed at everything in my way. I didn't know how the townspeople and Will were doing, but I heard human shouts of orders and pain every now and then.

Prae and I stood back to back as to not accidentally hit the other, and it proved efficient. This way, we covered all the mobs that dared to step near us on either side. "We need to get to the others!" she ordered over the snarls and gurgles of the monsters, the stream of them still coming strong. We slowly moved our way over to the group, and I got the first glimpse.

Will and Timothy were still standing, Timothy taking shots at all that got in the way and Will slashing at every mob. There was one townsperson still standing, the one that Will had been talking to earlier, but his left arm was swollen under leather armor and his movements were slow. We joined their circle of fighting and slashed at the mobs, no mercy in our eyes.

"Why did that stupid pig have to attack?!" sputtered Prae, her red eyes ablaze with the adrenaline of survival, even if it meant killing off other mobs.

"It's not his fault!" replied Will after sticking his sword in the abdomen of a spider. I agreed with him, although the consequences were pitiful.

An arrow flew out of nowhere, and before we could block it, it sunk into the townsperson's right shoulder, rendering both of his arms useless. He sunk to his knees in pain, and a spider got ahold of his face. It was safe to assume that that was his end.

I slayed the spider at our feet, and whipped Ocelot up with tremendous speed into a skeleton's jaw. It's bones rattled against his skull, and a quick swipe across it's shooting arm left it dead.

"We have to get out of here!" I commanded, and began to lead the way over the fence and into the dense forest. Will chopped up a bit of the fence, and Prae and I fended off the attacking mobs while Timothy squeezed his way through. Once he had made his way to the other side, Prae replaced the fence, and we sprinted off into the forest, the attacking mobs grasping at air over the fence.

Timothy trailed behind us by about a meter, and Prae, Will, and I led the way, each of us holding our respective iron swords in our hands. The moon hung at about five in the morning, so we didn't have to wait too long until it rose. There were no mobs in the forest that we encountered, supposedly because they were all concentrated in what was left in Sleepy Hollow.

"So, are we joining forces then?" I panted to Will between breaths.

"I suppose so, not much I can do after that to leave you guys," he responded, and smiled. "We made a good team back there."

The sun broke the horizon as we exited the forest. We had entered a desert, and the cold of the night was fading into the scorching heat of the sands. There were some fields of cacti, and a sand dune that stretched on behind it farther up. We stopped there, and took a brief rest. I had some pork, along with Prae, and Will munched on some cooked chicken that he must have found himself prior to meeting us.

"Do you guys want to find a suitable place for a home?" I questioned the group. Timothy brushed against my leg and walked over to Will, who scratched him on top of his snout.

"I guess so," replied Will merely.

"That would be a good idea, I think," responded Prae.

So it was settled. We would continue on through the desert and find a good place to build a home. And from there, we could create a better place for us all to settle.

** The group had now found another person, and a fun animal too. Now, they have to build a permanent settlement able to withstand a mob attack.**

** Where would they create their permanent settlement? Who would join the group as the fourth and final member? Would they have to slay Timothy for food in an emergency situation? Find the answers to these questions and more in the next chapter of The Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	9. An Ore to Die For

** Hello once more, my oh-so-faithful readers!**

** I'm back in black, and by that I mean that this chapter is a very SPECIAL edition! What makes it special is that much of it is from the first-person POV of a United States Black Ops military soldier stationed in Stockholm. _But wait one minute! _ Isn't Stockholm where the US is docking, and Herobrine wants them out? Isn't that where Mojang is stationed in present time? Isn't that where Notch is supposedly going to kick out those jerky US Special Operations groups?**

** I'm sorry, real-life US Special Operations groups. That was a figure of speech because they are in _Herobrine's_ way!**

** And now, the moment that none of you have been waiting for as it was prievously unannounced: the MechanixAngel Google+ page! Called MechanixAngel: The Page, it will give you inside information on the stories and songs I write, including previews for upcoming chapters and ideas for sequels/stories that I have. Follow the page today for all of the information possible!**

** Anyhow, time for some more shout-outs! I would like to give a shout-out to FlyingMidgetProductions, with his/her story The Diamond Compass, a thriller/adventure/mystery about a sever after a technical apocalypse of sorts. Oh, no! My second is for Gone by exb756, a supernatural story that is after an apocalypse with a mysterious cause, and the main character finds he may not be alone. The last story is called The Hostile Ones by Z3RO-TH3-H3RO, a story about all the mobs with very, er, _different_ personalities.**

** And now, for the review responses!**

**Mellifluousness****: I kind of dislike the new review thing as well, for the same reason as you. I'm farther than both of your stories now, I'm sorry to say. And I messed up on the spelling of Will's last name, indeed. Who cares, I'll just keep it that way. XD. And yes, Timothy is not the brightest pig in the slaughterhouse. But I can confirm that he is the tastiest between a bun with BBQ sauce and vinegar! ;P**

**shayor****: Yes, the blend of reality and fiction was amazing on my part, which I have stated before. The OC contest will be announced on the G+ page in time, so keep updated with that info!**

**Mdog30****: I Pmed you before, who in the Second Realm is coe?**

**FullMoonFlygon****: Unfortunately, Will's cheery mood was very temporary. It will be explained this chapter. Also, I shall be very excited about your OCs, and keep checking G+ for updates on the matter. Yes, yes; I thought that my little 'warnings' edition shall be fun as well. And by fun, I mean... (Richtofen laugh). And you might want to read that chapter; it's not good to skip them, or at least in my opinion.**

** So yeah, the story is becoming something. We have now joined the elites of 40,000 and above, so congratulations to us! Because this is a team effort, as I am fueled by your reviews and OC submissions in how I know someone is looking forward to the next chapter.**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 9**

**An Ore to Die For**

I woke in my tent, my back stiff from my second night at the camp. The US government had set up a post in the streets of Stockholm, and I was one of the first people sent out at the station. The terrorist group, Berngenzi, had covered Norway with their influence, and the US was working on setting up areas of influence in Sweden. Unfortunately, Stockholm had been destroyed in the Mojang disaster two hundred years ago, so there were no civilians to recruit here.

The good side to this problem was that they were free to set up camps here without governmental recoil. There had been no advance in technology for two hundred years, seemingly exactly since the Mojang disaster. All I knew about it was that some technology developer named Markus Persson had began a game company named Mojang, and about ten years after the creation of the company, he invited his entire team and about five thousand contest winners who were playing his game to the headquarters, where he would introduce what he called the next step in technology.

No one ever left the building after that, due to whatever his experiment did, and the enormous explosion and blackout that wiped the city's inhabitants off the face of the Earth. The US terrorist files proclaim the company terrorists, and the event is coded 'MC Portal' for reasons only known by the highest government officials. All other information about the event is stowed away in Area 51, and everyone knows there is no way in or out of that facility.

After the Mojang disaster, technology around the Earth halted. No one seemed to be able to come up with any new ideas, or at least couldn't find a suitable way to power the designs they had. It was like a curse; technology was advancing so fast prior to that, civilization was on the brink of a new Renaissance.

I warded off my thoughts on the new camp's old tales and put on my outfit. Standard issue helmet with sunglasses, which could turn into night-vision goggles at the push of a button. Long sandman camo pants and shirt, and black combat boots. I slung my MP5 with a red dot sight over my shoulder using the strap as it hung between my arms, slipped my knife into its slide-in compartment on my left combat boot, put my Desert Eagle in my holster, and slung five grenades on a strap over my shoulder, with flashbangs on the back.

The reason for the weaponry was that I was being deployed today, for a Spec Ops mission inside the city that no one had learned anything about. My tent-mate, Private First Class Dylan Reynolds, was already up and out of the tent, so I assumed I would find him. Us and the rest of our squad would be meeting in the briefing tent at 0900 hours, which gave me twenty minutes. General Walker herself would be coming via helicopter to attend the meeting and assign us our mission.

"Hey Sergeant Richter, get over here!" someone yelled from the right, and I recognized it as Private Long, another one of the members of my squad. I was the leader, Long was our explosives operator, Reynolds and Private Handforth were our assault team, both getting CM901s instead of the standard MP5, an SMG for close combat.

Turning over to Long's voice, I noticed the entire team was already there. I walked over in dignity and stopped in front of the others. "You look like hammered crap, Dylan," Handforth commented, causing the others to chortle.

"Rough sleep," I croaked merely, and waved off the subject. "Stop joking around, guys; looks like the General's here."

Sure enough, in the eastern direction I was facing, a large transport chopper was heading toward our outpost. There were only thirty people here, seven squads and two Colonels to oversee the events. We would have a General on our hands today, though; a rare honor for an outpost like ours. We headed over to the helicopter landing pad as the vehicle touched down, spreading dust and ashes into the air.

The General stepped out of the door while the rotors were still cooling down, her long brown hair in a braid to keep it from distraction under here US Army cap. "Welcome to World War III, General," saluted Reynolds mockingly, earning him an elbow in the gut from Handforth.

"Quiet there, Private, or you'll earn yourself more than that," Walker spoke from under her shades. She walked right past them all and straight up to me. "I've heard a lot about you, Sergeant Hamilton. Don't let me down," she told me, and then advanced toward the briefing tent.

"What did she want?" Long asked, and I just shook my head. "Let's just get to the meeting, OK?"

Our group walked into the briefing tent as Walker sat down with a folder of files next to Colonel Sanders, who was in charge of the Stockholm Outpost.

"June 7th, 2219, 0900 hours. Briefing meeting for Sweden Spec Ops Team Bravo. Commencing at this moment," Walker announced, and Sanders wrote it down on his computer like a robot. I guessed that he was recording the information. "Team Bravo, please, sit down," Walker said calmly, beckoning for the four seats at the other end of the table. I took the one opposite Sanders, and Walker opened up the folder for the whole table to see, spreading out its contents in front of her.

"I'm sure that you all are familiar with the Mojang disaster?" Walker started, and frowned when we all nodded our heads. "Yes, unfortunately so. You should know it happened in the city literally a hop, skip, and a jump west of this tent, and the aftermath of the event.

"Bad news for this outpost, though; late last night, we started picking up high levels of electromagnetic activity from the Mojang building itself. Never has this happened, even on our satellites, and there is obviously something fishy going on."

"Do you think that it could be an interference, a false call that was situated by the Berngenzi?" asked Long, and she shook her head.

"We have gone to drastic measures to make sure that there is no presence of them in the city. No, this seems to be something that we don't have word on. We're sending in you guys, Team Bravo, to check out the scene. Reynolds and Handforth, you'll be assault rifle cover. Long, we're sending you up front. Richter, you're operating communications and you'll be leading the way. Don't fail me, team," she answered, and we left the briefing tent to head for the city.

The camp rested a couple meters away from the entrance to the city. Our destination, the Mojang building, was five blocks in from the entrance; it wasn't in the business hub, but still in a large part of the city. At the edge of the first street corner, Long and I shifted into the front of the group, while Reynolds and Handforth stayed on the back corner of one of us, respectively.

I walked down the street slowly, looking for any sign of life. My MP5's sight was rested on my forehead, and I was concentrated on the small beam of red light in my path. We made it through the first block with no incident. The second looked like there had been a nuclear war there.

"God, this place is dead," commented Long from my right. Unfortunately, he was right. There were cars destroyed with people lying inside of them, lifeless. There were some people on the sidewalks lying dead, nothing that went well with the Swedish architecture.

"Whatever happened here was nothing natural," I responded, my boot crunching on some broken glass.

After advancing through the destroyed city for some time, we at last made it to the Mojang building. The street branched in a fork, and the building was at the middle of the fork, taking center stage. There was a cloud of dust in the air, giving the area an eerie look.

"Alright guys, let's move in. Long, blast open that door. It's locked," I ordered after pulling on the jammed door handle. He advanced and placed some C4 on the center of the door, and we stood back. Long pressed the button and it blew the door and the surrounding wall to bits, creating an entrance to something we'd never seen before.

The ceiling was high, with catwalks on the second floor to look down on the room. It was a lobby of sorts, but there was something very different here.

To the right of the reception desk was a large structure. It was made of a chrome outline, and on the inside was a green hologram of sorts swishing around like water. It wasn't a hologram, though; the texture was too realistic. What in the world was this thing?

"Assault squad, take the fire escapes to the second floor and provide cover from the catwalks. We're going in to investigate," I shouted, and everyone went forward to where they were supposed to go.

When I glimpsed Reynolds and Handforth on the catwalks, I gave Long the motion for us to move forward. The green substance swirled and tumbled inside its frame, and no sooner were we five meters from it when the room shook.

"Holy crap!" I heard Handforth yell from above, and looked up to see the entrance to the catwalk from the fire escape become dismantled and it crashed to the ground, leaving our cover stranded up there. The grates made a heavy noise on the ground, and the building stopped shaking.

I pulled out my radio. "Overlord, this is Team Bravo, was that an earthquake?" I spoke into it, and Long and I waited for a response.

There was static from the device, and the Comm Center's leader's voice came through. "Nothing on the scan. Sorry guys, whatever happened wasn't natural."

That was absolutely wonderful. I raised my SMG, waiting for any hostiles. The room shook again, and the catwalks all fell apart. Reynolds and Handforth were sent tumbling to the ground, and I heard swears as they hit the floor from ten feet up.

The lights went out. Not only the lights in the room (which were somehow still working), but our red dot sights. "EMP!" Reynolds yelled, and was corrected by an unknown voice.

"No, not military technology," said the voice, and I turned to the chrome frame with the green substance. There, standing in front of it, was a man. I raised my gun. "Who the hell are you?" I snarled, my finger locked on the trigger. The rest of Team Bravo followed suit, and the man raised his hands. He had a stubbly beard and a large brown bowler hat. He did, in fact, look very Swedish.

"You may know me as Markus Persson, but please, do not address me as such," the man said calmly, as if we weren't all pointing guns at him. He twirled his hat in between his hands absent-mindedly. "I go by Notch now."

"Why the hell are you here? You were wiped off the face of the planet two hundred years ago!" I interrogated Markus. I wasn't about to use some insane nick name for this man.

Markus paused, and seemed to think for a moment. "We have to go back to the beginning. I dedicated my life to my game, and when it reached it's height of popularity, I decided to create what I thought to be my greatest invention yet. The portal!" he explained, and raised his arms in enthusiasm as he beckoned to the large structure behind him. "A replication of something made in my game, but I created it in real life. And it works! If you step in, you will walk into Minecraftia itself!"

My mouth gaped in horror. "You threw people into your world for the fun of it?! And destroyed the city in the process?!"

Markus laughed playfully, and shook his head. "No, no, not against their will! I would never do such a thing! I let the contest winners come for the ceremony, to journey to the Second Realm: the Overworld! The people would have the opportunity to be inside my game. Of course, the portal wasn't tested, and the use of it resulted in the vaporizing of the entire city's lifelines. It's tweaked now, so I can use it at will. But no one else in the Second Realm will be allowed to accept for those who earn it, and then they have to ask my permission. Only the greatest of the greatest heroes can use it without pain, and no one person has come with such a record yet.

"Why I have come, and why you must leave, is important. When I activate the portal, it releases high levels of electromagnetic energy to attract you. Because of this, it would be dangerous to use it whenever I wanted, so I locked it up in a room heavily guarded by security systems and Valkyries. Of course, you don't know what Valkyries are, but that's not the point. I am here to warn you of our civilization's coming return," he finished, and stayed there, staring at us all calmly.

"You're coming back? Why in the world do you need to come back after two hundred years? I mean, you look fine and healthy, so it can't be food," I complained, and tightened my grip on the gun.

"Because there is a threat rising in this world. One that I programmed into the game, but I took it out after I began my plan for the portal five years prior to the Mojang disaster, as you call it. I didn't reprogram it into the Second Realm for when the people would become data, and become part of my virtual reality. But it came back instead, and with powers I didn't give it at any point," he sighed, and put his hat back on in disgust. "It is a threat that we may not be able to stop, and if worst comes to worst, we can come back to Earth through this portal behind me."

"Why can't you stop it? You're the one who created the world, you're the one who has control over everything that happens. Why can't you take the data for this _threat_, as you call it, and delete it so that it doesn't exist anymore?" I sputtered.

"Because it doesn't exist! It has recreated itself in a world where everything has to be generated by me in balance! This is a crisis!" he spat, and his face glowed red.

"Give me one reason not to kill you right now!" I yelled at him, and he shrugged, smiling.

"I have none."

We erupted in fire from our guns, and the bullets rained down on Markus. He stood tall, and the bullets flew into him and disappeared with a watery effect. He laughed at us, and once I finished a magazine I stopped and held my fist to silence my comrades.

"You're a madman!" I told him, reloading my gun.

Markus shrugged and smiled mournfully. "Believe what you will, but don't try to destroy the portal. The consequences will be just to great." He turned to the portal and put his right hand on the frame, and turned his head back. "We will be back, my friends. Be ready for our return." And with that, he stepped into the green substance, supposedly a portal, and vanished.

**TPoM**

The desert sun scorched down on us, even in the early morning. I held Ocelot at my side as we trekked along the sand. Luckily, there was no wind, so we were spared the expense of having dust blown in our eyes. There were many cacti here, and many squid wherever pools of water had formed.

We reached the edge of the desert at nine o' clock. It had been a relatively small biome, but we kept going as it didn't matter. On the left side was a oak and birch forest, with many trees spanning as far as the eye could see. On the right was a plain, very flat with tall grass and a river about thirty meters from the forest that went off into the desert far off to the right.

"I think that we should set up a home here," I suggested to the group, bringing out some wooden planks to build with.

"We could make a farm easily on that river, and I think that I see a cave entrance over there," added Prae, pointing to a small hole in the ground that sloped downward into the depths of the ground. It was only a couple of meters away from the desert.

"Yeah, that's sounds good," Will replied blandly, taking some cobblestone.

I began a small common area for everyone to stay in next to the river. Later, everyone working with us would be able to make their own rooms surrounding it using passageways, almost like an apartment building. We started by digging up an 12X12 area in the dirt, and flattened it on the bottom with dirt so that we had a hole one block deep. Will filled it up with cobblestone, and I placed a double door down on the side facing the forest; north. Then, Prae and I made a one meter high wall around the edge of the stone while Will went to collect some sand from the desert.

He returned when we were done and placed a furnace down in the center of the room. Once that was done, he began smelting the sand into glass. I fixed up the corners of the second layer, a wood block on the corner and one on either side on both sides. I did that on the two levels, up to the third above the stone. Every corner was done like that except for the side facing north, where I filled the entire wall up to the fourth level up with wood, surrounding the doors.

Prae went to collect more wood from the forest, and Will and I filled in the empty spaces through the third meter up with the newly acquired glass. We finished the fourth meter up's perimeter, and then Prae came back with a lot more wood. Will built ladders up to the final level on the outside, and I climbed up to the fifth meter up and created a roof out of more wood on the perimeter and stone on the ceiling.

After I climbed down and Will destroyed the ladder, the three of us stood in front of it and admired our handiwork. It was still only about noon, and we had created a common area for our group, almost like a town. If all the others were dying out, we should make our own, in my opinion. I explained my idea to the others, and came up with the perfect name for it.

"Fort Imperial. A military outpost for us in honor of my old city, which was destroyed," I brain-stormed, and my friends nodded in agreement. I built a sign on a spare workbench and placed it above the right side door. It read '_Fort Imperial Common Room_'.

"It isn't much, but it should be more organized and official if we're an actual town," I commented.

"I think it is a good idea. We'll be able to recruit more people eventually and set up a larger town," suggested Prae.

We walked inside and looked around. We had plenty of windows all around, giving us a good view of the land around us. The room's interior was empty, though. I decided that it should be more of a reception area, and that we'd work on it later. "Why don't we go and mine now?" I queried the others, and they responded by lifting their iron picks.

I shouldered my backpack, but put all of my stuff away in a chest I had set up in the common room except for my pick, Ocelot, an iron shovel, a stack of torches, and a stack of dirt for elevators.

We walked into the dimly lit cavern, which was only a couple of meters to the east of the common room, and put up some torches at the entrance. There was some coal, and Will mined it up while Prae and I advanced some more down the caverns. We found a fork in the tunnel, and there were four different large veins of iron around us and in the fork on the left. I had a stack of iron after mining about half of it, and the others found some more in that corridor.

The left fork ended after a bit, so we turned back and went down the other way. It was descending, and there was plenty of coal and some more iron. A couple minutes after beginning our descent, I spotted a bright yellow ore shining in the wall: gold. I mined five pieces of it, and Prae got four. Will got five as well.

After acquiring some more stone and iron, there was a red ore in the wall on the left: redstone. I had always been fascinated by the mechanics of the dust it yielded, but had never been able to work well with it. I mined it up, collecting some fifteen mounds of dust from it for wiring. We advanced farther, when Prae held her hand out in front of me, stopping me from going forward.

"What was that for?" I spat, and looked back in front. Or rather, looked down.

We were on the overhang of a ravine, the drop certainly fatal. "We should all split up," we announced, and I carved a path down in the stone for myself on the right, making a staircase down.

At the bottom was a small lava pool that intersected with some water, creating a good amount of obsidian. I looked to the right, and there was a light blue ore sitting pretty about five meters away from the lava. I had found diamonds, an ore to die for.

My giddiness was barely contained as I hacked away at them. Once they were cleared, I checked my bag. I had obtained five of them. I turned over to a cavern in front of me, and was about to advance when I felt a wave of heat.

I turned my head and yelled in surprise. The lava had caught my backpack on fire, and I threw out all I could from it: the iron, diamonds, gold, redstone, and my iron pick were all saved until it charred everything else to the point of no usage. I noticed some leather and paper. My journal! I had forgotten to take that out when I was unloading everything in our house. I stowed my materials in my pockets, and held my iron pick out as I walked into the corridor.

I noticed that it was already lit. I hadn't done it, and I was out of torches. Instead of backing off after this odd revelation, I continued forward.

At the end of the corridor was a small room lined with mossy cobblestone. It was a dungeon, but there was no spawner. Instead, in the middle of the room was another block of mossy cobblestone, topped off by a strange device. It vaguely looked like a belt, with thirty-five slots around it and an especially large one in the front. I secured it around my waist, and the large slot glowed red. Suddenly, all of my supplies from my pockets zoomed into the different slots of the belt. It stored materials, like a backpack! The red light glowed with energy, and I gaped at it in awe.

I exited the room, deciding that was the end of my mining day. At the top of my stone staircase was Will, waiting. "Prae went back already," he told me shallowly.

We walked back up in silence. I finally braved up enough to ask him the question on my mind. "Will, why are you so quiet all of a sudden?"

He sighed. "I try to be really friendly when I meet new people, so that is why I was acting like that. But this... this is me," he responded. I closed the subject.

At the top of the cave, I observed the sun. It was already setting, and we didn't have any beds. Prae was sitting against our common room, her beautiful hair blowing in the wind. She waved her hand in greeting, and then raised her eyebrow at the sight of my new toolbelt.

"What in the world is that?" she asked me as I walked up. Will headed inside quickly to dodge the conversation.

"Well, my backpack burnt up everything that was in it, including my journal, which I must've forgotten to take out, so I lost a lot of dirt, an iron shovel, and Ocelot," I sulked, and then tapped the belt. "I found this in a cleared out dungeon, and everything that I salvaged from the bag, I can store in this."

Prae had a flicker of sadness for me, and then smiled. "That's OK. I already read the journal," she replied, and then walked to the other side of the house to enter our common room. I stood transfixed, staring at the setting sun on my right. If she had read it, she would've seen what I wrote about her. And was that a negative reaction?

I had never been in a relationship before, as you can probably tell. But that was nerve-wracking.

I watched her pulling some things out of her chest, including a bed, and slipped under the covers of it. My chest lay untouched in the next corner over. What if...

** Sorry that the part with the main characters is so short, I didn't feel like writing too much. Plus, I'm on my way to Arlington in a couple minutes to bet on horses. I wish that Timothy was in the race, though. But now we have romance, too!**

** Was Prae's reaction positive? What will Alex do with his precious diamonds? Where was Timothy this entire chapter? And what will Notch do to keep the portal in balance? Find out the answers to these questions and more next time in The Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	10. The Chosen Four

** Hello once more, my faithful readers!**

** We have achieved what I thought impossible for any story of mine: over two thousand hits! That's right, everyone; my story has been viewed over 2,100 times now on the site. You guys are the best fans ever!**

** Also, I'm discontinuing shout-outs because it is boring for me to write down. But if you are on the site, you should be able to check out anything you want, and anytime. I sound like a TV marketer. Yuck.**

** Anyway, I'm sorry guys for a really short chapter. Like, really short. I think I'm exagerrating because Ch. 1, 3, and 4 were shorter than this, but I am getting better at writing longer. And this isn't long. This is normal! ;(**

** Also, make sure to check out the G+ page and sign up for an account on there so that I know it is you that is on there. Thanks guys, every bit of support counts!**

** But anyway, there weren't that many reviews this time. I guess everyone hates me after all...**

** Nah, just kidding. Like I said, you guys are the best fans ever! So here are the review responses!**

**Curtisimo****: Yes, he did! It is crazy, and it may change the fan fiction world forever!**

**Exb756****: Thanks for your support! I'm not adding conventional weapons as it is obviously a little too late, and also because I don't think it would fit in my story. They are used in the scene with the US military, though, as you can hopefully see. So yeah. And also, the character development of Frank and Natalie is rushed because of their quick and painful fatality. They really only were there so that Alex was given a base for what he needed to do before he met Prae. So yes, die, minor characters! Die!**

**Mdog30****: I am glad that you are so happy with the story so far! As for your question, I'm afraid we may never find out, unless I slip it in somewhere. I'm really glad that you like the story, again!**

** Well, as I said before, you guys are the best fans ever! So keep up the reviews, as I need them for reference for future reference. I said review. Review, you people! NOW!**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 10**

**The Chosen Four**

Nevertheless, I crossed over around the house and entered the common room. Will had climbed under the covers of his bed, so I crossed over to my chest and looked inside to see what I had kept. I found two stacks of wood, a stack of cobblestone, some left over glass, a bed, a workbench, and two furnaces. I took out everything, and they all zoomed into my new toolbelt. "Nifty," I commented, and Prae turned over in her sleep.

I destroyed the chest, and it flew into my toolbelt. Placing the bed down in the corner, I realized just how tired I was. I slumped onto the mattress, not even bothering to pull the covers over me. I closed my eyes, and fell into a deep sleep.

My dreams were filled with the iron that I had earned. I watched it form the shapes of different things that I could made with it; helmets and chestplates, swords and pickaxes. I decided in my low consciousness that I would make myself a full suit of armor when I woke. And so my dreams continued on like that, until the black background faded away into our common room.

I was standing on the cobblestone floor facing the door, and the room was empty. There were torches on the wooden walls, but other than that, there was nothing there. The doors opened, and I saw a dark world, facing the forest. The sky in the three windows was a bright blue, the sun shining down with a cool resonance.

Outside the door, the sky was dark, littered with clouds. I stepped out, holding nothing, and felt rain pouring down on me. Lightning struck a tree, and it erupted in fire. But instead of hearing thunder, I heard an unknown voice calling "Help!"

I began walking at a slow pace into the forest. The lightning continued to make a path for me, setting trees on fire. I began running at breakneck speed to save whoever was in trouble. Rain sloshed down from the sky through the leaves of the trees. Every crack of thunder resulted in the person's cries: "Help! Help! Help!"

At last, I broke through the trees of the oak forest, and the rain faded into snow. I had entered a taiga, but it was no better; in fact, the freezing snowflakes burning every inch of exposed flesh was worse than being sopping wet from the rainstorm. I was immediately turned snowblind, and I squinted to try and see a path through the white precipitation.

At least the thunderclaps were gone. By now I heard it again: "Help! Help!" The difference was, it sounded very human now. I stepped forward once, and again, and through the snowstorm, I made out a silhouette of a structure.

After hurrying over, I examined it. The calls for help were extremely close by now, and I realized that they were coming from inside the structure. It was made of loose dirt, and I noticed it had caved in in various spots. At these places, the snow had filled in the missing blocks, trapping in any air. And, I thought, anyone stuck inside.

I reached out my bare fist, cold from the snow but determined, and was about to dig out the helpless soul when the dream blacked out.

Waking, I sprang from my bed with adrenaline. That was not a normal dream. This was a message from someone magic.

Or Notch himself.

There was no time to think about who might have sent me the dream. I collected my belongings and hastily took out two of my diamonds. Now was as good a time as ever, and I scrapped them together with some sticks and hoisted up the gleaming sword I had constructed.

I didn't have time to name it, though; I couldn't think of a good one on the spot. The sky was still dark, the night was still young, and I hadn't gotten any sleep. The dream was too real to get any rest. It didn't matter, though; I had to save this person.

Not bothering to notify my two comrades of my sudden adventure, I opened the door into the night, hoping not to wake Prae and Will. The rain was already coming down hard, and lighting struck periodically. It didn't light a path for me, because that was a dream, but the thunderclaps sent chills down my back.

Holding my newly acquired diamond sword in front of me, I sprinted along the path I had taken in my dream to find this mystery person. The trees made no effort to shield me from the falling rain, but I continued through the soggy grass. I was a machine, my eyes cameras, and my sword a deadly weapon. I didn't lose my breath, even though it took me fifteen minutes at full speed to run through the forest. The adrenaline rush was just too great.

At the edge of the forest, the rain turned to snow. The lightning faded away, and the wind blew in my ears hard, eliminating any way for me to hear the thunder behind me. I waded my legs through the deep snow in front of me, and arrived at the structure.

Pressing my ear to it, I could make out a soft sobbing. "Someone... please," cried a voice inside, and I whipped out my iron shovel. The dirt had turned to permafrost in its disheveled position, but I hacked away with the blade until a small hole was made. From there, I pushed it around until I had an entrance inside, and climbed into a dark room.

"Hello? Is someone there?" said the voice from my left. I sealed the hole with some fresh dirt, and placed a spare torch (one of my last ones) on the ground in front of me.

Sitting there was a girl. She wore long blue jeans and a long-sleeve black T-shirt, and she also sported two black leather shoes. Her glasses were tinged black, and the left lens was cracked. She had long brown hair with red highlights, and extremely fair skin that was slightly blue from being cold. I could make out gray eyes through the glasses, but stopped squinting to see after I remembered her mind was there, too. There was a scar that rippled over the right side of her neck, and extended down to her chest and her back. The girl was huddled against the wall, the torchlight casting warmth on her that seemed life-saving. I glanced around. The walls in front of me were all sealed, including the one I had carved the hole in. On the back wall, though, it extended a bit, and the dirt was frozen solid over a mine entrance.

Turning back to the girl, I marveled the physics of torches. The warm air it spread had probably saved the girl from freezing to death, and it was definitely comforting to me. The girl's glasses slipped and fell on the dirt natural stone ground, and the glass shattered in them, rendering them useless.

"Oh, no! Darn it, I'll need another pair," she sulked, and looked up at me. "Um, thanks for that," she thanked me, and I shrugged in response. The girl searched through her bag, and sighed. "Nothing there. I need glass panes and wooden sticks to make some more."

I propped myself up against the wall opposite her, and put my new diamond sword away into a slot on my toolbelt. "I think I can help with that, but we'll need to get back to my house," I offered, and the girl looked up from her bag. She slung it over her back, and remained sitting against the wall timidly.

"Well, thanks a lot. By the way, my name is Anna Pistons," she replied, and stood from the ground to leave. The wind took a large gust outside, and we could hear the whistling from inside. "Anyway, my name is Alex Glowstone. I suppose that we should wait until the blizzard dies down," I suggested, but she shook her head.

"I've been snowed in at least since noon. This blizzard isn't stopping anytime soon. How did you find me, anyway? No sane person would be walking through here just for a stroll, and just _happen_ to find me," she replied, and blushed afterward. "Um, sorry if that's what you were doing."

I chuckled and shook my head. "No, it's a weird story," I shrugged, and told her my entire story. I didn't tell her about the journal or my feelings for Prae, because that would just be weird. My blabbering went on for a bit, and it luckily took up some time from the storm. I also left out the part where the prophecy apparently said that one of the people would die and another would betray the group.

"So if you join, that will complete the group of four that we need," I finished, and Anna sat, thinking.

"Sure, but I suppose that you want to know about me, right?" she replied. I obviously couldn't say no, so I nodded.

"Well, I've been on the run for a bit, some Endermen took my town. It was a really small town, though. And a creeper almost killed me..." she explained, pointing to her long scar. "But that was a month or two ago. I've lost track of time. I might be sixteen already."

"I'm pretty sure that in the morning, it will be the tenth of June," I told her. Anna's face lit up in surprise.

"Oh! I turned sixteen four days ago! Although it wasn't that sweet..."

With that, she held out an iron sword, and I dug my fist through the permafrost. A good sized hole opened up to the cold, harsh winds of the blizzard. I crawled through the opening, and helped Anna through as well. Holding my diamond sword, I followed my now faint trail of footprints in the snow back to the forest.

Once we were there, the rain had stopped, and I quickly climbed a tree to see the time. It was already dawn. If I didn't get back to Fort Imperial quick enough, Prae and Will would wake up to me not being there, and no notice as to where I was. I wouldn't let that happen.

Anna followed closely as I sprinted through the soggy grass. It wasn't drying from the sun because of the shade the trees provided, but I barely took notice. The forest was becoming more and more familiar until I reached the edge and stopped. Anna jogged up beside me and spectated the humble beginnings of Fort Imperial without one heavy breath. For being as quiet and lonely as she seemed, she was remarkably fit.

It had taken thirty minutes for us to come through the forest at full speed, and the sun was hanging to our left pretty high already. Was it just me, or did it seem like time had sped up while we were running?

No one had time to answer my question as Prae stalked up to me from the river, her fists clenched at her sides, her feet burning holes in the ground. Not literally, but they might as well have.

"Where in the world were you?! Will and I have been searching the caves and the outskirts of the forest for an hour! What did you think you were doing?" she scolded, her finger jabbing me in the chest.

This would be hard to explain. "Prae, I got a message from Notch. It had to be, because there is no one else here magic except for you. It was a dream of a girl I had to save, and it was real. I woke and relived it and, well, here's Anna," I explained quickly, gesturing to Anna. She raised a hand in shallow greeting, and Prae didn't let up on her stare.

"Fine. Let's go tell Will I found you, and you can introduce the new girl," she said, and turned on her heel and marched toward the river.

I turned to Anna, whose face was slightly frightened. "She's not very, er, welcoming. She still hasn't really accepted Will joining us. But you'll get along fine." I wasn't sure if I was reassuring her or myself. Nonetheless, we began walking after Prae, who was already passing by the common room.

Anna marveled at the sight of our small house. "It is only a common area. Every person in the town will have their own houses. Eventually, at least," I informed her.

At the river, Prae was talking to Will, who looked wet, presumably from fishing. She was telling him about my antics, but I caught Will's eye and winked. He smiled shortly, but continued to listen to Prae.

Prae finished and paused to catch her breath. I took the opportunity to introduce Anna and Will. "Anna, this is Will. Will, this is Anna," I said enthusiastically. Prae gave me a look like I was crazy.

"But there is an issue that we need to discuss. Why in the world would Notch send me a message like that?" I queried. Anna was completely clueless, Will was dumbstruck, and Prae appeared to be thinking hard about my predicament.

"Maybe he is trying to support you, however indirectly it takes," Prae answered, throwing away any notion that she was still mad at me for what I had done. "The only reason I found you in the first place was the dream he had sent me." It seemed like a legit answer, I supposed.

Anna and Will shrugged to answer, so that was the end of that. I decided that everyone needed a job to do, so everyone assigned themselves on things to make the towns better. Will was going off to fish with his newly acquired fishing pole. Anna would be going down to mine for more things in the ravine. Prae would go and chop wood. And I would collect the supplies while making the common room more liveable.

Everyone went off to their respective stations. I walked over to the town base and placed down a crafting table in front of it. Not permanent, obviously, but to use while I was sharpening up our house. From there, I made some sticks and another sign. I placed it above the door that wasn't occupied by the sign declaring our town and wrote on it '_June 10th_'. I would change that every day so that I could more easily keep track of time.

Once that was done, I checked the time. The sun hung at about nine in the morning. We had plenty of time to work on everything. I began to work on making the inside of the place nicer: placing the torches more strategically, so that there were six, two on the back wall and four on the front, two of which were next to the door. The floor was empty except for the three beds from last night, mine looking like it had been ransacked. I collected all three and decided that I would give them back to their owners when they came back.

I walked out into the bright sunshine, thinking of something to do. I decided that since I had so much iron, I could put some use to it. So I made three furnaces, two smelting iron and one smelting gold, all around the crafting table I had placed earlier. Then I realized that Anna didn't have any new glasses. I didn't know how bad her vision was, but I decided to go and find her so that she could make some new ones with the materials I promised.

Starting down the mine, I began to feel cold. I never really noticed how cold the depths of the ground were because I was always fueled by the need to find diamonds or iron. Today, I just needed to follow the paths down to Anna and deliver the materials to her. Heading down my stone steps, I spotted her bucketing some lava. She saw me and waved shyly, and I walked over.

"You shouldn't be doing that without glasses," I told her, handing her some glass panes I had made and a few sticks. She smiled and thanked me shortly, and gave me the bucket of lava in return. "I don't really need it, I was just looking for something to do," she told me, giving reason to the gift. I started back up the staircase and turned back. Anna was fitting glasses identical to her old ones on, but without the crack. She looked up and gave me a thumbs-up, and then turned to the wall to mine up some stone.

Back at the surface, I walked up to the furnaces. Each were done smelting, so I took their contents and set to work. The gold could be used later, but I crafted the iron into a helmet, chestplate, and leggings. I fit it onto my body, and immediately felt more protected. I already had iron boots, so I slipped those on. The armor was sleek and shiny, and I thudded my empty fist against it. It hurt, and I cursed under my breath as my knuckles were tinged red.

Will walked over from the river, and gaped at the sight of my armor. "Oh, cool! Can I have some iron for that? I've never had enough to spare for iron armor," he gaped, and I gave him the twenty-four ingots needed for a full set. I took them gladly and assembled them on the crafting table while I took down the furnaces and stowed away the extra coal in my toolbelt.

After he was outfitted, he gave me some sugarcane. I examined it, and found thrity-six bundles of it. "That should be enough for four bookcases," he told me, and handed over four fish as well. "That's your portion of what I caught. I guess I'll start making a farm on the edge of the river."

Will went off to do that, and I crafted the sugarcane all into paper, that into books using some spare leather, and then piecing them all together with some wood for four bookcases. I placed two on top of each other on the back corners of the common room's interior, and looked around to see my accomplishments.

When you create a random book in Minecraftia and don't write anything in it, it is filled with the tales of one of the three legends of Minecraftia: the War of the Creepers, the Legend of the Lost Colony, and the Blazing Angels. Those three books are created equally, and one of each is needed to create a bookcase. So now we had four copies of the trio.

The inside of the room looked rather sophisticated now, and so I called everyone back up to the house for lunch. It was noon, and everyone had accomplished a good amount of work. I handed out iron to Prae and Anna, and Anna put some more in the furnaces I had built, which I set back down for her.

We sat eating sandwiches near the doors of our house. Anna and Will were both fascinated by the different flavors coming together, and I recalled the story of how I had learned about them. Of course, I left out all the depressing parts about Frank and Natalie dying.

After that, everyone set to work making their own houses. From an aerial view of the town wit the south up, our houses were aligned like this. Mine was on the bottom left corner, Prae's on the bottom right, Will's on the top right, and finally, Anna's on the top left. The common room was centered in between all of them. Each house was built exactly the same way as the common room, but with a 10X10 base instead of the 12X12 common room's standard grid. The doors were all facing either north or south, whichever side was facing the next house over and not the wilderness. Above each door was '_Insert House Owner's Name's House_' so that there would be no confusion as to whose we were entering. There were also only windows to the wild corners, the sides that faced into the town were windowless for utilites.

After all of this was accomplished, I handed Prae and Will back their beds and made a new one for Anna. It was already about four o' clock in the afternoon, so we all walked inside to decorate ours. I placed a bed in the corner between the windows and a double chest next to that. After filling it up with the resources that I didn't need, I placed a workbench in the next corner to the left, and set up all three furnaces on its left on the cobblestone ground, for that was one of the sides without a window. None of my windows were blocked, and I had finished a base for my house.

At seven o' clock, we all met up in the common room. Will had set up a 3X3 table in the center of the room using four fences and half-slabs of wood. We all gathered around it for a town meeting.

"OK guys, I don't really know what we need to do now. We're pretty much done with the base for the town, wouldn't you say?" I began, and everyone else nodded.

"I think that the only things we need to do are build a protective entrance around the mine and make the farm larger," suggested Prae. I hadn't seen the farm, but I was too lazy to go check it out tonight.

"I can make the mine entrance," offered Anna.

"Alex, do you want to work with me on making the farm better?" asked Will gruffly, and I smiled in confirmation.

"And I'll set up a more organized tree farm," finished Prae, so everyone had a job to do.

It was getting late, and the sun was beginning to tinge itself orange. Will and Anna got up and left for their homes, but I stayed with my elbows resting on the table. Prae lingered as well, as if she knew I wanted to talk.

"I still don't trust either of them. Notch sent me here to work with you, so I know you're alliance is worth it," she started, sounding like a military officer.

I stayed, not daring to look at her. "Just try to work together, OK? Now that we have the four people the prophecy mentioned assembled, I don't trust anyone, not even you, I'm afraid. But that doesn't mean I don't like you, I mean..." Those words had slipped at the wrong time.

"I'll still work together, but remember that part of the prophecy. Someone will betray you, and someone will die in another land. Maybe the Nether?" she responded, dodging my awkward words.

"I know, it is just so hard with this prophecy on my shoulders. I've never had a burden that big. Not even for the Reckoning Day tests, which are supposed to be the biggest burden anyone but a Law-Maker is supposed to have," I sulked, and she walked over to me and lifted up my chin.

"Well, whatever happens, I'll always be there, Alex," she assured me. Our eyes locked, and I focused on those red irises surrounding the pupil. And she leaned forward.

And kissed me.

My heart did an amazing backflip that could only have been achieved in the Inter-City Competitions by a gymnast. Her lips brushed against mine, and her hair seemed as soft as it looked as it brushed against my face.

When she pulled away, both of our faces were red with embarassment. But it was good embarassment. "So, um, see you tomorrow," she told me awakwardly. I nodded, and we both rose from the table to leave.

"You have a good night's sleep, I guess," I mumbled. Wow. That was the best I could do. I opened the door for her, and she walked to my left over to her house. I waved, even though she wasn't looking, and she closed the door on the wilderness. I walked over to my house after closing the common room door and entered my haven.

I sat on my bed, thinking over what had happened. The moon was rising in the window to the left of my bed, and I watched it slide above the horizon, casting a pale blue glow over everything. The shapes of some mobs wandered around in the distance, and I slipped under my covers and closed my eyes.

After a night with a bad dream, there had to be some good ones in store.

My reaction to what I imagined was bittersweet.

** Aha! So Prae does like Alex back! (Why do I sound surprised, I'm the one who wrote the story...) Anyway, we finally have the chosen four assembled, our heroes of the world!**

** What is Alex's new dream? What will happen with Alex and Prae's new romance? And when will our heroes receive a pet? Find out next time, and only next time, in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	11. Armor and Sword

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** With the group of four assembled, what could Alex's next dream be? Why am I asking you? One of these questions will be answered! You can probably tell which one, but nevertheless...**

** I named this chapter after a Rush song because I sought that it was time to do that.**

** SPOILER: One chapter later in the story will be named after the Iron Maiden song 'Only the Good Die Young'. And I suppose that the first chapter was a Megadeth song. I don't really like Reckoning Day, though.**

** Also, make sure you guys check out the Google + page! Like, for reals! It's awesome, and I'd like to thank FMF for being the only one on there so far... :( I want more people!**

** Has anyone seen the new Black Ops 2 trailer? The one that just came out today, I mean. It's going to be written by the co-writer of _The Dark Night_ and _The Dark Night Rises_. I forgot the guys name, and I don't feel like watching the trailer again to look it up. But in your reviews, tell me what you think of it! I want to see if anyone else is super pumped for its release!**

** Also, any word on the release of Minecraft for the PS3? There are dozens of rumors that its going to be out this fall, but I need to know if they are true or not. Thanks!**

** To non-users of the site who want to review: I'm not going to moderate yes, just for the sake of spam. But seriously, and I think I posted this on the G+ page, don't _make things up_ about the story just for the sake of pointing out flaws. I mean, seriously. And also, I want to ask you guys something, and I want you all to be honest:**

** Is the only reason you are reading this the fact that I 'promise sex' later on in the story?**

** Because: 1) I don't. Slightly sexual is something like a kiss and suggestive jokes/thoughts. 2) Someone actually accused me of that. I mean, seriously.**

** On that angry note, let's move on to the review responses.**

**Curtisimo****: I understand your concern about the pet question, I actual changed it to 'a pet that is not dumb'. Because Timothy is as dumb as a rock. Also, what is with the ****Baron Von Porkenhousen?**

**Shayor****: Sorry, but the info is Google Plus exclusive. And the term in Minecraft is chestplate, at least when I've played. They might have changed it in a snapshot, I don't keep track of those other than what I hear from word of mouth.**

**FullMoonFlygon****: I actually have never written romance before. Don't criticize, but I'm serious. Also, I'm surprised about the reception of it. The death scenes so far have been pretty fast-paced, so I haven't really been able to write a good one. I will eventually, because as you all know, more people will die! And when it comes to writing so fast, I see that as one of the greatest blessings from God I have. Oh God, I'm going all bible thumper. All right, that's done. So here is to us indeed! To TPoM and The Miner's Destiny! So read them both, everyone! And be amazed!**

**Mdog30****: Funny that you mention Herobrine... Also, what are Vechz?**

**Sea of Fire****: Indeed, I am random also. And the kiss was amazing on my part, wasn't? I love boasting about it. TO THE COMMUNITY: we should come up with a code name for it, and spam everyone else with it! MWAHAHAHAHAHA See, I'm random too!**

**Exb756****: So many possibilities? What do you mean, so many possibilities?! Thanks for the reviews, anyway.**

**Night wl****: Here you go: a new chapter. Short and sweet, URA!**

**Sweet Apple Lane****: I told you in a PM, that is kind of neccesary for the story. Read chapter 9. Read it. Get it. Love it.**

** From now on, that's my new catchprase for the story. Huzzah!**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 11**

**Armor and Sword**

My imagination would not let me sleep. I was constantly having active dreams, and tonight just added to the spectrum.

As I came to consciousness, I groaned. Instead of waking up in the comfort of my bed, I was lying on a hot stone floor. And it wasn't warm; it was hot. I quickly jumped to my feet, and examined the floor. It looked like molten rock, except it was solid. I felt it again and pushed down, trying to see if it was squishy. That's what molten rock would be, right? But it held it's form, so I withdrew my hand and sucked on my index finger, which was burning hot from this mysterious ground. I didn't think I was in the Overworld anymore.

"Well, this wasn't the image I saw of our hero, is it? Sucking fingers and standing in the middle of the Nether without any tools or armor, what has this world come to, I wonder," taunted a figure in front of me. I quickly withdrew my hand from my mouth and looked down. For some reason, I didn't have my armor or toolbelt, and was left with the bare minimum of my clothes.

I looked back up in front of me. It was a man, standing on the molten rocks. He wore the clothes of a zombie, but they were not torn. His long arms were burned in some places, and is brown hair was scraggly. The strangest thing about the man were his eyes: solid white, and missing a certain kind of dot called pupils.

"Well, I did have armor, and now its all gone!" I protested, and the man smiled slightly.

"Don't worry. You don't retain your things in dreams, Alex. You're still safe in your bed. However, you also happen to be here," the man explained, waving his hand at the scene around us. The sky was consumed by a red fog, but there was a rocky ceiling that spewed waterfalls of lava at random spots. Over the crest of a hill that me and the figure were on, there was an enormous sea of fire. I was in the Nether.

"Who are you? Why am I here?" I sputtered.

"I am the Guardian of the Nether. I am-" he started, only to be interrupted by me.

"You're Herobrine," I guessed, and felt a wave of fear pass over me. There were many legends of him in the Overworld, haunting innocent people and building sculptures that shouldn't exist in the world. To have him standing before me gave me the jitters. "You were the one who sent me the dream last night?" I guessed again.

Herobrine shook his head. "That, as you might have guessed, was my brother. But this dream, or whatever you may call it, is all my doing," he answered.

"Why am I here? Why am I not allowed to sleep peacefully anymore?" I complained.

"Please, hold on. I will explain what I can. You are here because you wouldn't be able to continue without having any direction from us. I'm afraid to say that your wandering around will not do you any good," he responded calmly. This was not the man I envisioned to be Herobrine.

"Hey! We were planning on making a town where we could survive together!" I exclaimed.

He shook his head, like I was a child who didn't understand anything. "Alex, what would you do from there? Would you all stay in your town, waiting for the Endermen to unleash their armies on you?"

I thought for a moment. It seemed that he had me stumped. "We could build fences..."

Herobrine laughed at the obscenity of the suggestion. "My friend, there are many things you don't know. Things that I am only beginning to understand. You aren't naïve, but rash. Rash in how you make decisions, but don't think about the consequences. Have you considered the Endermen building mob camps around the entire fort, leaving you to be stranded inside? And the Endermen themselves could teleport in with a will great enough! And don't you know about the prophecy? The betrayal would be awfully gruesome if it happened to come at that time."

I opened my mouth to spurt out some other ill-minded comeback, but no sound came out. I focused on the ceiling for a moment, took a deep breath, and continued to speak. "OK, so if you are here to give me direction, then what is it I need to do?"

"Child, you must not be quick to the answer, but think over what must be done," he responded. I balled my fists in frustration. This Guardian of the Nether, as he called himself, was really pissing me off.

"I AM _NOT_ A CHILD!" I screamed in fury. I was breathing hard, too. "What does that even mean?! Think over what must be done? How can I do that if I don't know _what_ to do?!"

"Alex, you do know what has to happen. Think about the prophecy," he responded. Herobrine waved his hand, and the book containing the Prophecy of Minecraftia appeared in my hands. I read over the lines again. "_Travel to the End_?" I questioned, but he shook his head. "Farther back. Where are you now, Alex?"

I thought. We had skipped the heralding of the survivors, so I guessed that would come in some final fight or whatever. Honestly, I almost didn't care. Reading through, I realized. "_And one will die in a distant land_."

Herobrine nodded, and I looked up at him. "We have to travel to the Nether? But why?" I queried.

He waved his hand again, and the book disappeared from my hands. "You must achieve two goals. You must find a Nether fortress and acquire six blaze rods. And, unfortunately, along the way you must lose one of your companions." Herobrine snapped his fingers and three orbs appeared above us, floating in the red fog. Each one held peaceful images of Anna, Will, and Prae sleeping soundly in their beds. I lost focus for a moment and thought of Prae. If I lost her...

"Herobrine, is there any way to control which people have each destiny?" I asked, and he shook his head soundlessly.

"I am afraid not, Alex. What happens in my realm, happens. Whether it be the one who fears this world, the one who embraces the opportunity, or the one who feels bad for the entities stuck here, one of them will die. But before you come here, make sure you are prepared."

"I have the iron armor, and so does everyone else in the group. We really just need more diamonds for weaponry. And we need them anyway to mine obsidian."

Herobrine sighed, and turned around and stared off into the distance. "Alex, armor and sword are not all that is needed to survive the Fourth Realm. One must be ready in the mind, and also have the resources to accomplish the goals."

I stood for a moment, facing his back. I still had two questions. "Herobrine, will I have to kill any of my friends?"

There was silence. I watched a ghast fly through the cavern, spewing balls of fire at anything that was careless enough to anger it. For example, a zombie pigman that happened to stare at it for a moment too long. These mobs of the Nether, I couldn't believe that I had seen them in my life. Traveling to one of the other dimensions was always regarded as a feat only achieved by the greatest of the heroes. I also supposed that if I did achieve the prophecy, then I would be one of the greatest heroes in history. At least, I hoped so.

"I can not see the answer with the information that your brother has provided me, no matter how hard I strain the mind of one as great as mine. But I must say that that would be a cruel thing, something I have only seen once before. But the Creeper Wars were a gruesome time, so I do not believe you will meet the same fate," he answered after a minute or two.

"And also, Herobrine, are you a god?"

This question appeared to be much easier to answer. "Alex, the answer to that is yes, I can't lie. But the nature of it must remain confidential. My brother would be awfully angry to learn that I had spoken about such things with you. But now, you must wake! I hope to find you in my realm soon!"

**TPoM**

In a matter of seconds, I was once again awake in my bed. The wool covers gave me warmth, but I didn't appreciate that after being in the Nether in a dream. I moved out from under it, and set my bed once more. It was still about four o' clock, so I had a lot of time to kill. I walked over to my workbench and made a good amount of sticks and assembled them into a bunch of fences. I also created a stone slab. Using these, I placed the fence and the stone slab on top of one another in the front right corner to make a table.

I was bored now. My house looked very homey now, and I looked out my window that faced the forest. There weren't any mobs at first sight, and I looked closer. There didn't appear to be anything, until I heard a footstep. Or rather, a couple.

"Bark!" called a wolf. There was a wolf sprinting out of the forest, being chased by a skeleton. I quickly made sure I had my sword with me, and then I sprinted out the door to save the animal.

Timothy was sleeping leisurely outside of Anna's door, and the wolf scurried over to him to seek cover. I brandished the diamond sword, which I still hadn't named, and took a swipe in mid-air to knock away an arrow headed directly at the innocent animal. The skeleton noticed me and shot one of the projectiles at my arm, but I swiftly dodged it. The arrow landed innocently on the ground.

The skeleton strifed me on the left, and I jumped up and slashed the sword into his shooting arm. The bones clanked around, and his arm fell to the ground. Skeletons don't have pupils, but if they did, this one's would've widened in terror. I brought the sword down into its skull, smashing whatever was left of it apart. It crumbled into dust, leaving a bone on the ground and a rare drop: a bow!

I picked up the weapon, holding the slender wood in my hand. The string was thin and agile. I pulled back on the string, lodging a spare stick in an arrows place, and pulled back.

I was aiming for my door, but the stick instead flew and thudded into one of the windows of the common room. The stick thudded to the ground aimlessly, and I was glad that it hadn't shattered the glass.

After putting my stick back on my toolbelt, I walked over to the wolf. Timothy was still snoring obnoxiously, and the wolf was on it's knees next to it. I held out the bone, and it kicked off of Timothy to jump up and snatch it. The wolf closed its mouth around it, and fell to the grass, gnawing on it. Timothy stalked over to Will's house to get some uninterrupted rest. Why had he been at Anna's anyway? It seemed that he was pretty loyal to Will.

The wolf stood back up and brushed against my iron coated leg contently, the bone hanging in between his teeth. After some awkward inspection, I discovered that the wolf was a boy. It was walking in circles around me, biting the bone heartily. He must have been chased over from the tundra where I saved Anna. I patted him on the head, and noticed a small collar on his neck. There was a dog-tag there as well, and I thought about what to name him.

"Is that a wolf? I've always wanted one," exclaimed a voice from above me. I turned and saw that Anna had opened her door, and was watching me as I scratched my new wolf behind the ears. "Er, sorry to sneak up on you like that," she murmured awkwardly.

"That's OK. It is kind of weird that I'm over here. I just, kind of, saved this wolf from a skeleton, and he's taken a liking to me," I explained. There was something about Anna that made me talk kind of weird. I went red in the face.

"And how do you know that the dog is a boy?" she taunted, making me go even more red.

"Er, I was just wondering what to name him," I told her.

"Him?"

"Shut up, Anna."

"Well, I have always liked names that start with 'D's and 'M's, like David and Maxwell," she suggested. I thought for a moment, hoping to find something original that I liked.

"I've got one. Gavin!" I said, finalizing it. Gavin wagged his tail, and gave a short, high-pitched bark.

"That's a cool name. It fits the dog," Anna commented. Gavin was hopping all over me, and I scratched his belly. The sun was rising over the horizon to my right in the desert. The dog bounded over to the river, presumably to wash itself and drink some water.

Anna and I entered the common room to meet with everyone else before we all went to our jobs. Will entered after about five minutes, and Prae walked in a few moments after that.

"I hate being the last one," she said matter-of-factually.

After a brief breakfast of fish that Will had caught yesterday, we all headed out to our respective jobs for the day. After they were done, I decided I would explain my dream to the group and we would mine some obsidian and flint for a portal. Will headed off to the river, and I quickly changed the date to June 11th.

The water flowed out away from the desert, heading west and snaking around many bends and turns. Gavin was sloshing around in the water in front of me, and Will was waiting for me on a pier that I assumed was for fishing. Timothy was sleeping at his owner's feet, snoring loudly. I walked down onto the pier, which branched out into the water about halfway.

"Hey Will, do you have a hoe and some seeds so that we can start the farm?" I questioned him. He was holding some dirt, and looked prepared to begin building the dirt for the wheat to grow on.

"I have ten seeds and a stone hoe. I'm going to branch the farm off of the pier, with three rows that are five blocks long each. I'll also add another pier on the edge. Does that sound good?" he confirmed, and I nodded yes.

"You do that, and I'll go collect some more seeds," I told him. He began to placed down the dirt with a row of water on either side of every dirt row. I climbed up the hill that led down to the river and inspected the plain grass. There were some spots where it grew taller, and I inspected these carefully. Once I had found five different good lumps of seeds and stowed them away in my toolbelt inventory, I headed back down to the river. Gavin headed up to me and walked at my side.

"Gavin, stay with me so I know where you are," I told him, and he gave a loud bark to show his recognition. Will was finishing up the pier, and the dirt rows had become farmland. There weren't any seeds in them, though.

"I thought that if we waited for all of the farmland to moisturize, the seeds would grow faster," he explained after walking over to me. The other dock was finished, 4X6 and lined with fences on the sides facing away from the farm. We stopped to eat a small snack while the farmland fertilized itself. After some bread, we planted all of the seeds, where they lay in the dirt, ready to sprout.

"I'll put up a torch on either side so that they have light during the night time," suggested Will, and he did as he said on the top of the end of the fence next to the water.

We were done with our job, so we headed up to the common room. Anna was there, and we got a brief glimpse of a building made of cobblestone and glass behind her house. On the east side of the town, Prae was planting saplings. The method was a dirt block every five blocks either way, with glass surrounding it and torches under the glass. Everything else was wooden to make a better-looking walkway.

When she was done, we all grouped together in the common room like before. Anna seemed ashen, and Will stood next to her with a frown on his face. I think that they had been talking this morning, and that's why Timothy was there. Speaking of Timothy, our two pets were tussling with each other outside of my house, Gavin the easy winner.

"So what now?" asked Will, his voice low and grumbly. It seemed he was a different person with Anna than alone with me.

I decided that it was no or never. "Guys, we have to travel to the Nether," I started, meeting their estranged looks with a casual indifference. I filled them all in on how Herobrine had visited me and told me to acquire six blaze rods. I left everything else out though, as to not let Will and Anna in on how someone was going to die.

After explaining this, Will piped up. "No! I can't go to the Nether!"

This left him with a good amount of surprised looks from around the room. "Why not?" Prae asked, fearless as always. I remembered how it was right here that she had kissed me last night. If she was the one to die in the Nether, what would I do?

"Because... because..." Will couldn't finish the sentence, so he instead lifted his iron chestplate off and left it exposed for us. His white shirt was severely torn on the right, and there was his skin underneath. Except... it was black and red, giving it the look of something charred in an oven.

"I almost died in a lava pit once. I can't go to the Nether!" he protested. So he was terribly afraid of fire. Something new was learned about this guy everyday, it seemed.

"But all four of us have to go," Anna choked out. I noticed she was crying now, tear streaks along her face. She caught me looking, and then darted out of the room and slammed the door on her house.

"What in the world was that about?" I questioned, and Will shook his head. "I'll go and talk to her," he said, and left for their house. Prae and I were alone again. The scene was too odd for any romance, though. I waited, my eyes fixed on Anna's house. After a half hour, Will trudged out of the door. Timothy walked over to him, but was pushed out of the way haphazardly.

"Well?" Prae queried. Will's eyes remained transfixed on the ground.

"I'm going with you guys," he started. "And I probably will meet my doom. Anna... she had a vision while she was waiting for us. The Blazing Angels visited her..."

That was enough to be said. The Blazing Angels were another one of the legends of Minecraftia, about a group of Aetherian angels that went back down to the Overworld without permission. Their punishment was a job, as the Blazing Angels that came down to the Second Realm to alert the good people that their most beloved one was dead.

"It was her sister. They knew they were sisters because of the priest in her town, but she must have died in her escape. You know how she escaped from the village? Her sister made it out with her, but they were separated in a nasty thunderstorm a couple days later. I think Anna just needs the day off," Will finished. "And, um, never mind."

Will stalked off into his house, and Prae turned to me. "Suspicious as always, isn't he," she joked. I wasn't in the mood for jokes, though. I had to get the obsidian.

Prae followed me into my house. I worked on my crafting table and created the greatest tool in history: the diamond pickaxe. I held it high above my head in an elegant fashion. "Let's go get some obsidian!" I ordered, sounding heroic and dorky at the same time.

Prae organized some iron, and she made a flint and steel for later. We walked down into the mineshaft Anna had created. We didn't have much time, though. The sun was already hanging above the horizon threateningly. Climbing down a ladder to the ravine floor, I noticed the area where the lava and water met. I blocked off the lava and water with stone, and walked up to mine the obsidian.

The rock was extremely hard to mine, but my back-bone effort kept me going at a good stride. Prae watched for mobs beside me, gripping murder with intensity.

After I had mined up fourteen blocks of obsidian, the pair of us hurried back up into the town. The moon was rising above the horizon, and I could see mobs in the distant fields far out. We paused at the door to the common room.

"Alex, I want you to know I'm not the traitor. I can't be, and if I am, kill me," she sputtered, leaving me flustered.

"OK? What was the point of that?"

"I want you to know that, because I'm afraid of the Nether too. The ghasts, and the fire..."

"I'll be there," I assured her, and our lips locked once more. It was just as sweet as the last night, maybe more so. We broke apart and held each other in our arms.

"I'm afraid too, for all of my friends back home. I don't think any of them survived, but still." I wasn't afraid to admit I was worried. A sense of dread was looming on me as we prepared to enter the Nether to following morning.

"Do you think that any of us will get out alive?" she queried worriedly, and I nodded in response.

"There has to be a prophecy, doesn't there? Besides, I won't be too bad. We can build walkways guarded by cobblestone, so the ghasts can't get us."

"Alex, you know that won't work."

I stopped to think for a moment. "Last night, Herobrine told me that armor and sword were only the beginning of what is needed to triumph the Nether. I wish I knew what else..."

And with that, we broke apart, and said our good nights. I held the obsidian in my toolbelt, she had the flint and steel in her backpack. Herobrine was right. We needed the mind, but we needed to be prepared with what we brought with us.

Slumping on my bed, I decided that I would pack in the morning. I didn't feel like it at all right now. Gavin hopped into my room, and curled up at the foot of my bed. I closed the door and got under the covers. "Good night, Gavin," I said absent-mindedly.

The small bark was all I needed to hear to know that we were both safe.

** We have now had our first visit from a god now, and it happens to be Herobrine. So hooray for that.**

** Will Gavin and Timothy have mysterious powers to let them go to the Nether? How will Anna cope with knowing her sister is dead? And when will Notch visit Alex with a message for him? Find out next time, only on the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	12. Trial by Hellfire

** One week.**

** Hello once more, faithful readers. I have not been faithful to you. The time above is the amount of time it has taken for me to update. Writer's block had me for one week, locked in an endless fight to strangle and choke out my originality to death. And at 2 EST today, I won the battle, and wrote this entire chapter in three hours. Plus, I went to the pool.**

** The grammar errors may be plentiful, but we are here with Chapter 12! Huzzah!**

** We were left hanging with many different thoughts of what was to happen next. Fear no more, my friends! I am here to answer some of those questions in this amazing chapter right here!**

** Just look a little lower. Not _that_ low, back up a little. No, no, no, you've got it all wrong. Come down. Go down a little more... Crap, you're too far. Come back up. Darn it, you're back where you started.**

** Nevertheless, I am here with a thank you to all of you who are reading. Once again, I'm choked up about how loyal you all are!**

** Also, make sure that you visit the Google + page! Now! Do it!**

** And now, because it is important:**

** FULLMOONFLYGON'S BROTHER! SUCH OBSCENITY! I SHALL NEVER, EVER WRITE A LOVE STORY! THE ROMANCE BETWEEN ALEX AND PRAE CONTRIBUTES TO THE _ACTION_ AND _ADVENTURE_ AND _SUSPENSE_ PLOT-LINE! DO NOT BE FOOLED!**

** That _was_ really important to me.**

** Also, make sure you check out the poll on my profile page. Follow the directions on it before you vote there, because there is an accurate description of each idea on the G+ page.**

** And now, for the first time in a week, the review responses!**

** (Mock croud approval)**

**Mellifluousness****: You never told me too, she just kinda, um, seemed like a good character for Alex to be in a romance in, do you know what I'm saying? (Shut up, FullMoonFlygon's brother) Thank you for agreeing with me on that preposterous idea a flamer came up with. A wolf named Hawk... I did not think of it that way. I just named Gavin after a White Sox pitcher who happened to get placed on the DL a couple of minutes ago! ;( Herobrine: serious. I've always looked at it that way, based on the one message on that forum: Stop. Tegel... Yes, that is my last name. Now you know, stalkers. I'll have to change that section of my profile. For the chicken matter, my mom happens to be making chicken cordon bleu right now. I can cook chicken, too: I just choose not to. Do you happen to be Nicole Ramirez on G+? Because they are following MA:TP, and he/she didn't tell me who they are. :I**

**Curtisimo****: No ways! Me has grammars as two! You did mention him being afraid of fire because Quote 'he was nearly burned alive once' Quote. I just came up with a reason for him to be burned alive. But I'm changing it. The new reason is: "I was hungry, so I tried to roast him." Quote Skeleton.**

**Shayor****: Actually, that was just the auto-type spellcheck on OpenOffice. It just did that on it's own, even though I shut that function off...**

**Sea of Fire****: TPTLK... Hmm. That could work. Also, I use your name again in this chapter. Twice, I think. And if I have to ask the people, then a lot of people will be suing me soon...**

**exb756****: It would be funny if Alex was PEN1. Heheh, I love the music video to that song. I thought the campaign for BLOPS 1 sucked, but everything else was good. I just can't wait for zombies campaign! ZOMG!**

**Mdog30****: Vechs... I'll have to try that someday. Armor and sword, mind you. That is the proper expression.**

**FullMoonFlygon****: Jelly? What does that mean?! And to your brother who thinks this is a love ****story, read above. Thanks for the review, anyways!**

**Night wl****: I'm glad that you like the name Gavin too. It's awesome! About Prae, I'll have to think about it... Just saying I know exactly whose dying and whose the traitor... I'm not telling, though.**

**Absol24****: Yeah, I really like Chapter 9 with the aspect of the real world. Also, I like the food/book metaphor. It's making me hungry.**

**RDTFLU****: Whenever I respond to you, I'm just going to use that acronym. Your name is too long. As for your review, too late! BWAHAHAHAHA! But that is definitely a good idea for later in the story.**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 12**

**Trial By Hellfire**

I woke the next morning of my own accord. The sun was rising in my window, and Gavin was still sound asleep on the ground next to my bed. Waves of memory washed over me as I thought about the coming task for the day. Traveling to the Nether was something I had thought impossible for a regular kid like me, but since I wasn't normal anymore, I brushed away those doubtful thoughts.

Pulling myself out from the covers, I wondered what awaited me. Nether fortresses weren't exactly common, so we would have to travel for a while. I glanced over at Gavin. His chest rose and fell at a steady pace. It was too bad that I wouldn't be able to bring the dog to the Nether; portals only worked with humans and Zombie Pigmen.

I put everything in my toolbelt away into the chest at my bedside so that I could resupply myself from scratch. The red orb in the center pulsated eerily. I wondered what fueled it. Putting aside my suspicions, I collected everything that I would need. First, I collected my diamond sword and pickaxe. Those two were no-brainers. After that, I collected two stacks of cobblestone so that we would be able to make a temporary fort so that we would be safe from the mobs of the Nether. Images of the Ghast flying above Herobrine and me in the dream caught me captivated. I would need a ranged weapon as well, so I collected my bow and five arrows.

A spare workbench, furnace, the fourteen blocks of obsidian for the portal, and a stack of dirt for elevators later, I outfitted myself in the sleek iron armor I had made the day previous. Afterward, I opened my door and stepped out into the morning sunlight. Sad thoughts overpowered me as I thought about the dark caverns of fire and lava. One of my friends was going to die...

After changing the date to June 12th, I walked inside of the common room and waited at the table. Knowing my luck, I was the first one awake. Examining my diamond sword, I tried to think about what to name it. I remembered Imperial Plains, and the roads that were blasted apart. Dust and rubble everywhere, all because of the Raid of the Endermen. It was practically the Nether arisen in my former city. I wondered what had happened to the Royal Guardsmens' building. I remembered how it had completely collapsed from the eighth floor down.

I decided what to name my new sword. In memory of the people who served my city to their final breath, the sword would be called Monarch. Royal, and ultimately triumphant. I would have to be triumphant if anyone was to survive.

Will entered the room, equipped in his armor and brandishing his iron sword. He nodded hello, and I responded with a quaint "Hey."

Prae came in the room next, holding the flint and steel that we needed to activate the portal. "Hi, Alex," she greeted me cheerfully, but I could see past that. Her face was pale, and she looked as if she was shivering. She was clearly shaken at the prospect of her possible death later today. I didn't have to worry about myself because I was the subject of the prophecy, so I needed to live. And Will and Anna didn't know that someone was going to die, so you could say that they were just naïve. Prae, though, was clearly afraid of what awaited us.

If Prae was the one who lost her life, I didn't know what I would do. I couldn't think about romance now, there was too much stress. Someone was going to die, and yet another would lose their trust in me and turn on us.

I hadn't put too much thought into that. One of these people were going to do something to set me back, and I wondered what it would be. Sell me over, abandon me, or worse: try to kill me. I hoped it wouldn't happen in the Nether; who knows what would happen then.

Anna finally entered the room, tear tracks still on her face, but set for action and redemption. I imagined her situation. She would want to kill every Enderman in sight after they killed her sister. And it was clear that my suspicions were true, for she immediately started the meeting.

"When do we leave for the Nether?" she began bitterly.

"I think that we should make a basement underneath the common room, which is sealed off by doors and stuff so that Zombie Pigmen can't get into Fort Imperial," I suggested. There was a good reception of this, so we got to work. I dug up a six block deep hole in the front right corner of the common room, and Will placed ladders leading all the way down. We worked together at the bottom and hollowed out a 5X5 space, with the ladders in the front right corner. After placing a trapdoor on the top of the ladder, I walked to the back wall of the room. I dug up a four block long trench and placed obsidian inside of it. Then, I stacked the purplish rock up the side of the wall to the fourth meter above the ground of the basement on either side of the bottom of the portal frame. And finally, I connected the top with two last blocks of obsidian.

The frame was completed, and I stepped back to admire my handiwork. We took some time to put up torches inside the room, and Prae stepped up.  
"You do the honors," I told her. Prae advanced with the flint and steel and struck the metals together. There were a few sparks, and then some landed on the obsidian. There was a small popping noise, and the inside of the frame was filled with a purple liquid.

Even though it was fire that lit up the portal, the temperature in the basement dropped a million degrees. Goosebumps popped up on my arms and legs as we stared at the portal. There were many myths about the Nether portals being used by the greatest heroes, but none mentioned a significant drop in heat. I supposed it was Herobrine's way of making the Nether even more eerie.

"Er, you first," Prae told me, beckoning toward the purple substance. I hated being the leader sometimes. Gripping Monarch tightly, I inched forward toward the portal. If this was any other situation, I would have made fun of me for my fear right away. I took a deep breath and stepped into the purple portal.

Almost as suddenly as the temperature had dropped, it rose at an incredible rate. There was a peculiar tingling on my arms, and my stomach was binded up in much the same way as it had when I was transported before using the Enderpearl. I couldn't move an inch of my body, but I was still fed air as if I was breathing. My eyes were blinded by a purple haze, and the light hurt my pupils. I could here distant voices, and suddenly I fell onto a surface.

The floor was a stone, white with a green tint. I was in a small room, and the walls and ceiling were made of the same material. Everything was shaded purple, and there was a purple fog. I don't think that I was in the Nether. I still don't know...

"He has traveled into the room. He sits there, confused like the small child that he is," chortled one voice, it's speaker was nowhere to be seen.

"So I trust the sabotage was successful?" said a second voice.

"Unmistakably. His friends have be allowed through, of course, we could not spare the opportunity for one to perish and die," replied the first one.

"May I see him?" asked another.

"You are a fool, young one. No wonder the dragon is keeping you in the prison. We need people like you that we cannot trust here, guarding souls that cannot leave. I am only here for the arrival of the Herald of the Survivors," snarled the second voice. Uh-oh. They were talking about me.

What did I expect?

I began to feel the tingling again. The purple fog was clouding up, and there was a cry of surprise from one of my captors.

"What the hell is going on in there? This fog, what is it?" cried the first voice.

"He was never here to stay... Blast! The saboteurs must have botched the portal sabotage! That is why Glowstone brought Nether particles with him, he was always traveling to the Nether!" spat the second voice.

"Glowstone, if you can hear us, beware! Your friends are in great danger, and the code we altered will assure you are not with them right away!" laughed the first voice, followed by a loud "Ouch!"

"You idiot, giving him that information! I will tell the dragon what you have done. It will surely not be happy!" scolded the second voice.

"Ha! Look who is in trouble now!" taunted the third voice.

"Quiet, young one, or your soul will be left to rot in this prison as well," the second voice told it, and the voices gave way to a buzzing in my ears as I was once again succumbed to the sensation of being teleported.

"Argh!" I said, caught off of my guard by a drop onto the netherrack that I had been on in my dream with Herobrine. It was just as hot as it had been two nights ago, and I picked myself up with a little effort.

That had been weird, but I had bigger problems. The Nether portal I had spawned at was in a small cavern in what must have been a wall of netherrack, and my friends were nowhere near. The voices had said that they had already arrived, and I was alone. They had also said that they had altered code to hinder me?

What was code? And what had they done?

I came to the conclusion that they had made me spawn in a different portal. The closest that I could be to my friends' portal was sixty-four meters in one direction. I walked hurriedly over to the entrance of my cavern, and looked down.

"What the hell..."

I was near the top of the large cavern landscape of the Nether, and below me was a mass of red fog. Squinting through, I saw a sea of fire on the bottom, and a platform two-thirds of the way down with a Nether portal and three figures. It had to be the rest of my friends. Unfortunately, there was a walkway into the netherrack column/wall that I was in that was filled with Zombie Pigmen, or something humanoid at least. The battalion was sprinting toward the floating island, all brandishing golden swords. I made a quick count of them. There were about fifteen, maybe twenty.

My friends wouldn't be able to hear me from here, so I quickly got out my bow and loaded an arrow. I pulled back on the string and let loose an arrow. Sure, I was a bad shot, but this one found it's way onto the bridge and hit one of the attackers. The Zombie Pigman lost it's balance from the blow, and was sent crashing forty meters down into an ocean of lava.

One of the figures standing guard at the portal looked up, and I saw a hand waving for me. I couldn't tell who it was, though. Before I was able to examine, the three of them began to fight off the onslaught of Zombie Pigmen. I had to get down there, and jumping obviously was neither safe nor smart.

Pulling out my diamond pickaxe, I decided I would dig my way down on the edge so that I could always see what blocks were below me. I picked a block directly above the bridge into the netherrack wall, and began to hack my way down.

The Zombie Pigmen were fighting hard. There were twelve left,and the majority of them were just waiting at the edges of the floating island, with one fighting each of my friends. None of them were going to die yet, not if I had a say in it. I at last found my way down, and fell about five meters to the ground. There was another cavern that went through the wall on both sides, and I had landed right in the middle of it. Behind my was an entrance to the mainland, a large landscape of ridges and lavafalls that were lit by fire and glowstone, with drops and walls at random spots.

Turning back to the floating island, I witnessed a better view of the fight. Prae was gritting her teeth, constantly locked in combat with one of the Zombie Pigmen, Murder slashing and swiping in every direction. Anna was playing defensively with an iron sword, blocking every cut from her attacker's golden sword, and using her quick feet to her advantage. Will, finally, was concentrated on hacking at his opponent, bringing his iron sword down on every inch of exposed flesh over and over again. His attacker was playing defense much like Anna, and it was obvious that that Zombie Pigman wouldn't last long.

I sprinted forward with Monarch, and took a large slash at two of the Zombie Pigmen who were guarding the bridge. Monarch hit them both, knocking one into the lava and the other backward, where it stumbled into another and fell over. It squealed angrily, but I swiped Monarch through it's neck, leaving it decapitated and lifeless.

Hopefully it was lifeless. I didn't want to fight a headless Zombie Pigman.

There were two others blocking the bridge, and one started forward on me. It must have taken notice to the first one stumbling onto it. The Zombie Pigman hacked at my left arm, and it probably would've hit me if I hadn't been holding Monarch in that exact spot.

"Nice aim, Porky," I taunted. The Zombie Pigman responded with a grunt.

We traded hits over and over again. Monarch was continuously bashing against my attacker's golden sword with no effort, whereas my opponent's was dented and scratched in many spots. Gold, I knew, was not a strong metal, and I played that to my advantage. After what seemed like forever, Monarch actually sliced right through the middle of it's sword like butter.

The Zombie Pigman grunted in surprise, and I smiled. "It's time for a feast, and you're the main course!" I laughed, and jabbed Monarch right between it's eyes. That was what you call a fighter's quote, I thought, and threw what was left of my attacker into the lava below.

This could be fun with some crude comedy, I thought. There were about a million quotes I thought of, but I only had enough Zombie Pigmen for me to kill three. That sounded really offensive.

Locked in combat with the last Zombie Pigman that was blocking the bridge's end, I took a swipe at it's arm. My opponent easily blocked the attack, and I took a chance at a trick that I was sure wouldn't work. I pointed off in the distance to my right and cried in surprise, "Look! Free corn gruel!"

The Zombie Pigman squealed in joy and looked off in the direction I was pointing. Surprised that the trick had worked, I swiped at my attacker's right leg, and it easily came off. My opponent grunted in pain, and tripped to the right, off balance.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. It's only for real pigs, you freak," I taunted, kicking it in the side. My victim rolled off, and caught flame in the lava below.

I was now on the floating island, and my friends had all moved on to their next attackers. I took a slash at another, and a deep cut formed in it's back. "Screeh!" it cried, and turned around to face me. The new Zombie Pigman hacked at my side, but I sidestepped to my right. I would be a much better fighter without the narrow space burdening my foot movement. I bashed my opponent in the face with the side of Monarch, leaving it stumbling backward, swiping it's golden sword at the air in front of him.

I advanced forward, and the Zombie Pigman suddenly charged out of it's injured state and tackled me. I fell to the ground, pinned down by the snarling pink and green face atop me. It's teeth were razor sharp; I suppose it had chewed on some rocks since it's days as a flat-toothed pig. My attacker snarled, spitting blood on my face, and closed in for a bite on what was exposed on my face. With effort, I lifted Monarch on my side and speared the diamond sword through the Zombie Pigman's side. It fell off to my left, and I scrambled to my feet.

"You pay for what you have done!" I spat, and pulled Monarch out of it's stomach. I quickly wiped off my face, which had been smeared with blood, and hurried over to the last attacker.

The Zombie Pigman noticed me before I got there, though, and it sliced at my leg with it's golden sword. I performed a spectacular jump over the incoming weapon, and brought Monarch down atop the unsuspecting creature's skull. It crumpled in a heap on the netherrack floor, and I raised Monarch in a triumphant pose.

"I shall not lose any trial by hellfire!" I bellowed, scaring off any creature within a hundred blocks. Just because I was that awesome.

"Um, what was that, Alex?" queried a blood-stained Prae. Her armor, and after I looked around I realized that in fact everyone's armor was covered in blood and soot. I turned red in the face. I had forgotten that other people would be witnessing my antics.

"It was a fighter's quote," I responded quaintly. That didn't make any sense, but Prae nodded to leave the subject alone.

"I have a water bucket, if you guys want to wash off all the blood and stuff. I'm kind of OCD, so, yeah," suggested Anna. Her face was still determined to avenge her sister's death. I admired her sudden boost of courage. If that had been my sister, I would still be breaking down.

We all agreed to that, so Anna placed four cobblestone blocks vertically and placed a water source block on the side of the top one. The water gushed down, spilling over the blocks next to it. Anna walked into the ready-made shower first, and the water spilled down on top of her, washing away the grime she was covered in.

While she was doing that, I walked over to one of the Zombie Pigman corpses. It wasn't the corpse that interested me: it was the sword. There again was the strange eye symbol that I had seen back in the cave with Frank and Natalie. Black on gold, it looked out of place. But if that was here, then there must be Endermen here, too. That couldn't be good.

I walked back over to the shower. Anna and Will were both standing to the side, their armor and faces wet and surprisingly clean. Prae was inside the water flow at that moment, the blue liquid spilling down her sides. After she was done, her hair hung down her back in a fixed position. That happens when hair gets wet; it sticks together, and it interrupts to flowing texture.

I stepped into the shower, and immediately felt relief. The water washed away the heat, leaving me cool and content on the inside. It felt so good after being in the Nether for a while. The water licked at my sides, and my armor was left sleek and shiny, good as new.

I stepped out from the water, my hair wet and my arms and legs cool. The heat of the Nether blasted me with full force after I stepped out. Anna collected the water source and the cobblestone while the rest of us rested for a second. I was glad for a moment of peace in this hellish dimension. At least, until we heard the meow.

It was loud, and it sounded like a cat mewing, so I shall call it that. It was so loud that it shook the netherrack island we were standing on. Only one thing could have made that sound: a ghast.

The white jellyfish figure came around from the corner of the netherrack wall, crying and mewing with a high-pitched voice. I searched it's body, and luckily didn't find any of the black eye markings. That didn't matter, though: the ghast had spotted us, and screamed in disgust as it launched a ball of fire at us.

The fireball hit the edge of our platform, blowing that area up in flames. The explosion launched hot ash at us, and it seared against my exposed skin. I bit my tongue with pain, and turned to the others as another fireball hit the platform. "We have to get in the netherrack column! Hurry!" I ordered.

"What about the portal?!" protested Will. As if on cue, another fireball was launched directly at the purple substance inside the obsidian frame. This explosion was the closest to us, and the explosion hurt my ears and knocked me to the ground. Through a ringing in my ears, I heard Will's response of "Never mind!"

I scrambled to my feet as another fireball hit the platform. The others were all sprinting across the bridge, and the ghast, by coincidence, had picked it's target: me.

I jogged across the walkway with great effort. It was about thirty meters long, and the ghast was firing balls of fire at me. They continuously blew apart the bridge, and I made a dive for the cavern just as a fireball tore apart where I had just been standing.

The ghast went back to mewing, which assured me that it didn't know where we were. I collapsed against the wall, exhausted. My back collided with something that didn't feel like netherrack at all. I turned around and shielded my eyes right away. It was glowstone.

After retreating a couple of meters, I examined the rock. The rock that gives light, I think the prophecy said. It was stowed away in my chest back at Fort Imperial at the moment, so I wouldn't be able to check it for reference.

The rock I was named after. It glowed with a quiet elegance, and I stared at it. I was just so tired, though, and I didn't want to look at something that bright.

"Alex, why the hell didn't you spawn with us?" interrogated Prae with hostility.

I was taken aback by the accusation. I looked back at the portal that they had spawned in. The frame was all that was left of the island, leaving it suspended in midair above the sea of fire. My portal was somewhere way above us, and I shrugged. "I don't know..." I honestly wanted to keep my visit to that 'prison' a secret, in case it meant something. Prae watched me like a hawk.

"I need sleep, though. Can someone else take first watch?" I asked, and Prae immediately volunteered. I don't think that she trusted me at the moment. As soon as she said yes, I fell over on my side, my eyes slowly closing me out of the red fog that swirled around us.

If the Endermen were here, then we would definitely have a fight coming our way. I think that we would be able to rise to the occasion. An image flashed across my mind of all of us atop a hill of netherrack, armorless and poised to strike with our swords. If worst came to worst, I would fight to my final breath.

I wondered which of the three wouldn't have my back.

**A trial by hellfire serves you right. I decided to do that fighter's quote thing for my own amusement after playing Der Reise for, like, six hours over the past three days. BTW, if you like Zombies and are reading this and have a PS3, please add me! I hate playing with randoms, it is so freaking annoying I can't stress it. BLARGH! Anyway my username is 'CTOriginal6', without the comma or apostraphes. But you could probably guess that.**

** How long will Prae's distrust last? Will seeing the block he was named after for the first time give Alex a newfound hope? Will Anna avenge her sister's death mightily? And of course, who will die in the Nether? Find out next time, and you better read next time because I'm once more killing someone off, on The Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	13. Blood and Fire

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** We're back with more Nether, more death, and more Sergeant Richter! Read further in, and we'll see the latest of our Black Op later in the chapter.**

** Still looking for more people on the G+... I'm thinking of moving the page to DeviantArt so I can post pictures and have a better following, due to the fact that so many people are unable to make a Google account. It saddens me, but nevertheless, we shall be moving soon.**

** Hey everyone! Make sure that if you want someone to beta your stories, I'm the person to ask! I have a lot of time on my hands this summer, so don't be fooled by asking the people who never took their betas off the site even though they haven't been on in a million years. I'm currently open for betaing stories about Minecraft, CoD, and Harry Potter. Huzzah!**

** Also, make sure you all check out the Ender Chest. It happens to be my community, and not to boast, but it is the fastest growing one in the Minecraft category. In one and a half months, we already have six stories from quite a few people. Included in it is The Miner's Destiny, Gone, Ears to Hear Us, The Minecraft Chronicles, and naturally TPoM. So yes, make sure that you check it out, because we are a force to be reckoned with!**

** Guys, make sure that you check my profile page because there is a super important poll there! It is a question of which story I should write first after this, with the descriptions on my G+ page. I'm going to post the stuff right here, too, because we all need to know about it. It is that important.**

**The first idea is a direct sequel coming about forty years after the events of TPoM's ending. When is the ending?! 2219? Or later?! That's a spoiler, so I won't tell you. Anyway, the name of it will be 'Stranger in a Strange Land'. This one is interesting because every chapter name will be named after an Iron Maiden song, much like many of the chapters in TPoM being named after Megadeth, Rush, and Maiden themselves. But that will be exclusively Iron Maiden. Also, I have the entire plot-line worked out for this one.  
The second idea is a mostly a prequel, but at the end fast-forwards to the events of TPoM, and it gives some information about the TPoM plot-line previously unknown. I suppose that SiaSL would too, but nevertheless... This story deals with the Mojang Incident, and the aftermath from the point of view from a girl named ****CLASSIFIED****. Nothing special about the chapter names here...  
So yeah. Make sure to vote for the poll.**

** And now, the review responses!**

**Shayor****: OK... Thanks for the insightful and lengthy review, buddy.**

**Exb756****: It kills me every five minutes or so. Trust is quite a factor in these next few chapters, as we try to find out who is the traitor. And unfortunately, we can't trust anyone anymore. Luckily, I am updating quickly!**

**Curtisimo****: Where exactly did he get that disease from, I ask? With the alteration in canon, I honestly don't care. And Timothy probably would change dimensions for the reason you stated. But it would be awfully hard to curtail to an idiotic pig in a dimension full of beasts and fire.**

**FullMoonFlygon****: Once more, sorry FMF's brother. I like defending my stories with anger, because I just do that. I just do. The mysterious voices get all the better this chapter. How? Read on. Other than that, I understand the spoilers of hunger. I like food. So yes.**

**Sea of Fire****: If you're suing this time, I'm going to hide in a hole. There are too many times where I say your name in this chapter.**

**Night wl****: Suspicions do get very interesting, so let us wonder: is it Prae?**

**Mellifluousness****: I do imagine Herobrine as more of a serious person, since being condemned to ruling the Nether so long ago. Nicole Ramirez still won't step up... But we're moving to DeviantArt, so huzzah for that! Pretty obvious that the voices were Endermen, but what is this ****about a dragon?! The repetition was terrible last chapter, I definitely tried to work on that this chapter.**

**RDTFLU****: You can make glowstone from combining four clumps of glowstone dust, you know. And as for that interrogation, I'm not doing that just because I already planned the traitor's scene. But thanks for the suggestion.**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 13**

**Blood and Fire**

The ground below us was on fire. Sprinting up the final hill, I dodged a crevasse just as another fireball hit the ground where I had been standing just a moment before. Even if Will and Prae were still in the cavern, I think that we were losing time. I jumped across a small gap to the other system of caves, and scrambled inside a small corner. I doubled over, panting to catch my breath. Anna followed me and ducked inside the corner.

"How much... time... do you think we have?" I questioned. I knew we didn't have much, but I needed to know for sure.

"That was a large mass heading for their cave. I think there's a detour somewhere in this cave system, if we use it we can get to them," she responded, breathing hard all the while.

"Then there's still time," I quoted, and raised Monarch to my eye level. "We have to save them once and for all."

_**20 Minutes Earlier**_

I opened my eyes to more of the red fog. It felt different not sleeping on a bed, and my side was stiff from it. I rolled over onto my back, and felt that this wasn't much more comfortable. Prae was leaning against the wall, arms folded with Murder propped against her side.

I rubbed my eyes. My side was _really_ stiff. "How long have I been out?" I groaned. "Ugh..." Getting off the floor, I once more glimpsed at the glowstone. It was very different from anything I had seen before.

"About four hours. It would be about noon right now," she answered. Her eyes pierced me with intensity. I groaned again.

"Do you still not trust me with the portal spawning? Because I have no idea what happened," I told her. That last part, at least, was true.

Prae stayed put, her facial expression stern and unmoving. "I just wish that we did know what happened. You do know that that's not normal, right?"

I chuckled at the obscenity of this suggestion. "Of course I do. Then again, nothing about me seems to be normal anymore," I sighed, looking back at the glowstone. How did something shine so bright and majestic in a world lit only by fire? I touched my hand to the single square of glowstone embedded in the netherrack wall. Instead of the steaming, hot to the touch intensity of the molten rock around us, the glowstone was cool, and felt similar to cobblestone. It just happened to be casting light across us.

I decided I would take it back to the Overworld with me. If I couldn't be normal, I might as well be proud of my abnormality. My diamond pickaxe easily cut up the rock, and I was left holding two clumps of glowstone dust. That wasn't enough to make a full block of glowstone for my house. I would have to find some more.

Walking along the passageway that cut through the giant wall of netherrack, I wondered what had happened in the portal this morning. Those voices... They cut my skin like a shard of ice. Their voices had been barely audible, and I hadn't liked what they had said.

_"So I trust the sabotage was successful?"_

_ "Unmistakably. His friends have be allowed through, of course, we could not spare the opportunity for one to perish and die."_

_ "You are a fool, young one. No wonder the dragon is keeping you in the prison. We need people like you that we cannot trust here, guarding souls that cannot leave. I am only here for the arrival of the Herald of the Survivors."_

_ "Glowstone, if you can hear us, beware! Your friends are in great danger, and the code we altered will assure you are not with them right away!"_

A portal sabotage? What in the world could that be? And a _dragon_? And what in the world was code? A code, at least, I thought, was almost like a language made of numbers and letters so that messages could be secretly transported during the Creeper Wars. How can a code be altered to change where I spawned?

Maybe it was magic, so maybe a should tell Prae about it. But these voices, I think they belonged to Endermen! How could I understand them?

All I knew was there was a prison of souls somewhere. And I didn't like any of the ideas I had as to where it was. Because truthfully, I had never seen that kind of rock before. It wasn't in the Overworld, and I don't think it was from the Nether, so what could it have been?

Midway through the corridor was another block of glowstone, illuminating that section of the hallway. I mined that up as well, and I was left with four clumps of glowstone dust. That would be enough for me to make a block of the rock that gave light, so I headed back to our camp. When I arrived, Will and Anna were both waking up.

"Rough sleep, wasn't it?" I greeted them. I leaned on the side of the wall, just to have something to rest on. Even walking in the Nether drained energy so much because of the heat. I couldn't imagine what it would be like if it were humid here, too. The netherrack on my back seared my skin through my iron armor. Will groaned in response, and Anna nodded slowly. Her face was already ticked off again.

"What do we have to do today?" Anna asked. I think that she would go crazy if she didn't kill something in five minutes.

"We have to find a Nether Fortress so that we can kill some blazes. We're going to need six blaze rods, at least, Herobrine told me so," I told her. Of course, I left out the part that someone had to die in order for the prophecy to move forward.

I stared out the entrance to the lake of fire. Sitting in midair some thirty meters away was the deactivated Nether portal frame. Past it was fire everywhere. There weren't any islands or walls of netherrack anywhere, leaving the landscape bare and deadly. I turned back to the group, where everyone was suiting up in armor and checking supplies. I checked my belt to make sure I had everything when we heard the horn.

It was a deep, blaring noise sounding from the sea of fire. It definitely wasn't natural, so we walked over to the edge of tunnel and looked out.

A long way out, partially obscured by the red fog and smoke being emitted by the lava and fire, was a large shape. It looked vaguely like a ship. And it was floating above the lava, as if it could fly. And apparently, it could.

"What the hell is that? And how is it flying toward us?" sputtered Will. It was obvious we weren't safe from the shape, so we ducked behind some netherrack at the edge of the tunnel so that we could watch it safely.

"It looks like a sailboat," muttered Prae, who was crouching next to me. Will and Anna were hiding on the other side of the opening.

The giant ship was getting nearer, and it loomed in front of us with an evil majesty. It was completely made of netherbrick, and it was moving using turbines at it's back end. On the top of it was a purple mist, with particles swirling around it. We couldn't see it, but it was obvious who was operating the ship. There were Endermen on it.

Our netherrack wall was large, but there were ends to it. It was almost like a column, and the giant ship was barreling right toward it. It was high above us, and soon we could only see the underside. There was suddenly a crash, and it appeared the ship had smashed itself into the column. The walls around us shook, and the ceilings cracked under pressure. We were all thrown backward with the power of the blast.

"What in the world was that?!" I sputtered. The netherbrick bottom loomed over us, obscuring all view that we had of the ceiling of the giant cavern that was the Nether. Picking ourselves up off of the ground, I brushed my knees off. The ship crashing into the column had been more powerful than anything I had ever seen before.

"I have no idea..." responded Prae. The others were silent in thought.

I had a bad feeling about what had happened. If there were Endermen on that ship, then we were certainly not safe. Securing my iron helmet in a set position atop my head, I held out Monarch. We were, as bad as I didn't want to, going to have to investigate. The ship had crash-landed directly in the entrance to our ticket out of the Nether: the only portal that was in a safe position and also active. I was certain that there had never been anything like that recorded in history. Whatever this was, it was not normal.

"Let's split up and infiltrate the ship. There's no way that we're going to get out of here if we don't, and there's nothing else for us to work on while we're here," suggested Anna.

"Aren't you forgetting the Nether fortress? That's the only reason we're here, besides to have someone-" Prae scolded, cutting short. She had almost spilled the beans about how one of them was going to die, and her going pale in the face confirmed it.

"Have someone what?" queried Will.

Prae shook her head vigorously, as if to shake off her worries of herself losing her life. Odds were that it wouldn't be a merciful death in the Nether, when one slip off a ledge could end your life with a slow and painful death in the lakes of lava that dominated the dimension. "Never mind. It's nothing," she responded. That was convincing.

"Besides, that plan seems a little aggressive," I said, drawing the conversation back to Anna's suggestion.

"And unsafe," added Will. Of course it wasn't safe, we were in the freaking Nether. Only someone who was afraid of fire would say that.

There was silence as Anna thought it over. "Well, the ship is made of netherbrick, which is only found in Nether Fortresses. Or at least, we thought so," she mused. "Maybe, since it's made of that same material, it might have a connection to finding one."

That did seem like a logical reason to explore it. "I think that it might be a good idea. But how will we get up there? We can't just build up a staircase into the cavern up there where I spawned. Because whatever is manning that ship, which I think will be Endermen, is going to be crawling all over the place up there," I wondered aloud.

"Let's flank it. Two groups of two on either side can do a lot of damage, you know," Will told us.

"I'll go with Will on the right. Anna and Alex, you take the left side. If we head out the back side of the corridor, we can find some tunnels to get up to that level in more netherrack columns," Prae brainstormed. With that, the four of us headed back along the corridor to the back of the column. It was very much like a window into a landscape of hills and ledges, with lavafalls spilling hot, searing magma in random spots. On our sides were large walls of netherack, that extended out beyond our field of vision into the sea of fire. There were caverns and openings all over them, indicating a mass series of tunnels and corridors.

"There. We'll find our way through those tunnels and make bridges onto the ship," ordered Anna. So it was settled. We bid ado to Prae and Will, and headed off to our left.

The landscape was hilly and, honestly, scary. I say that because there were a few times that we found sudden drops and ravines that led down into a lake of magma below. Each of these experiences scared me, as each one posed a new threat against my life. After traversing the landscape for a while, we reached the thick netherrack wall. There was a small entrance to the glowstone-lit caves inside of it just to our right. We glanced back at where we had come. Will and Prae were still making their way through the dangerous terrain. They were obviously being more precautionary where we had been hopping over gaps and burning our arms on smoke.

"Let's start up the cave, then. Not going to do us much good if we sit here," proposed Anna. As she started inside, I wondered for a moment how long this need for revenge would last.

The cave snaked upward, but we were definitely heading to the left, which was where we needed to go. After five minutes or so of navigating the tunnels, we reached a small opening that rested at the same altitude as the active Nether portal, give or take.

We hid behind some netherrack and poked our heads around to get a glimpse of the top of the ship. It was a sight I had never seen before. And something I hope I'll never see again.

Aside from the point of interest, to the right was a hundred meter drop into the sea of fire that extended out as far as we could see. In front of us, seperated from the wall by about five meters, was the ship itself. It was a large deck, and on the other side was an elevated level, leaving something similar to a captain's quarters underneath, sealed off with a door and walls. There was a large mast, suspended in midair by clouds from the Aether.

It mystified me as to how those were existing here. Sure, there had been cloud parachutes in Magnam Civitatem, but there had been a reason for that. For them to be supporting an airborne ship didn't make much sense at all. With a bewildered look on my face, I looked at Anna. "How in the world do those masts work?"

"I think that we have bigger problems," she told me without breaking her gaze on the ship. I looked back at it to look it over a second time. In my curiousity of how the ship worked, I hadn't taken notice to the wide array of Endermen and Zombie Pigmen aboard the ship. There must have been a dozen of the Endermen, and triple that size if you included the undead swine. They held golden swords like before, each engraved with the odd eye I had seen on all of the mobs being controlled by the Endermen.

Suddenly, I heard the voices again, the same ones from the cold, purple room. But they were here, making new sentences, deliberately striking fear in my heart.

"The two who performed unsuccessfully have been taken care of, Xerox."

"Lift those blocks over there! We have to make a bridge into the cavern over there!"

"The child shall be found. Once that is done, we will launch our attack on the Nether temple."

"One will die in our attacks, I do wish it could've been Glowstone."

There were tons of them, all talking about different things, and each of them concerning me. For example, the only order given out was being carried out now: the Endermen were taking large blocks of netherrack from the walls of the room where I had spawned, where the ship was now docked, and making a bridge over to our hiding spot.

"We have to get out of here, now!" I frantically whispered to Anna. She raised an eyebrow.

"Why? The plan was to flank the ship," she responded.

"Didn't you hear the Endermen talking? They're coming over here now!"

"You can understand them?!" she cried, confused and afraid at the same time. "All I heard were weird bleeps and bloops."

"Well, they're making a bridge over here right now! And I have a bad feeling that the Zombie Pigmen will be coming for us if we don't run now!"

With that, we began making our way back through the tunnels at a quick pace. I leaped down steps and slopes, admiring the generation of these caverns.

"How will we even warn the others? They'll have made it over there by now," worried Anna.

"They might not have made it, Prae and Will were taking their time. And besides, the ship's deck was higher up on that side. So if we're lucky, their entrance will be blocked off by the ship's hull, and they'll be lucky enough to decide not to mine up the netherbrick. Now, we need to move!" I told her, only taking one short breath in the middle. At last, we reached the opening of the tunnel into the barren landscape of the Nether. It sent chills up my back when we heard the mewing.

"GHAST!" I screamed, breaking into a mad sprint across the netherrack region. I leaped over ravines and pools of lava, all in a crazy attempt to save our friends. The fireballs came raining down on Anna and me as we trekked across the landscape, the ghast showing no mercy for us humans. About a third on our way to the other side of the terrain, a group of a dozen Zombie Pigmen sprinted out from the morning's camp to our right, heading the same way we were. The undead swine didn't take notice of us, and we continued along the Nether's hills and ravines.

The ground below us was on fire. Sprinting up the final hill, I dodged a crevasse just as another fireball hit the ground where I had been standing just a moment before. Even if Will and Prae were still in the cavern, I think that we were losing time. I jumped across a small gap to the other system of caves, and scrambled inside a small corner. I doubled over, panting to catch my breath. Anna followed me and ducked inside the corner.

"How much... time... do you think we have?" I questioned. I knew we didn't have much, but I needed to know for sure.

"That was a large mass heading for their cave. I think there's a detour somewhere in this cave system, if we use it we can get to them," she responded, breathing hard all the while.

"Then there's still time," I quoted, and raised Monarch to my eye level. "We have to save them once and for all."

We traveled up the cavern. There was a fork here, one to the right, one to the left. There were sounds of Zombie Pigmen on the left, and silence on the right.

"They would understand their sense of direction, hopefully, and the Zombie Pigmen happened to pick the wrong way," I hoped, leading us to continue up the path to the right. Making much noise sprinting up, it wasn't a surprise when I was suddenly knocked to the ground, Murder on my neck and Prae on top of me.

"Oh, sorry. Why are you guys here anyways?" spat Prae. She was looking at Anna for conversation after getting up to her feet off of me, so apparently she still knew that I wasn't giving them all the information that she wanted. Will stood behind her, his iron sword in a ready posistion to strike.

"There's an entire army on that ship, we can't attack it now. Plus, there are Zombie Pigmen in this cave system, so we were trying to be quiet so that we wouldn't be blown out by an attack," I informed her, brushing my knees off from my initial encounter with Prae.

"We can't attack it yet, that would be foolish," added Anna, lifting her sword. "We'll have to fight it later when we have a better opportunity. For now, we have to get out of the killzone. We're not safer here than anywhere else in this hellhole."

"Fine. I'll lead the way. Anna and Will, you take the sides. Alex, you watch our back," commanded Prae. I was once again left thinking who put her in charge. Nevertheless, our group headed down the slopes of the caves, hoping not to find any Zombie Pigmen along the way.

Once we exited the tunnels, we were brought back to the reality by the huge mass of mobs on the outside. There were suddenly Zombie Pigmen everywhere, with the occasional Enderman. "Oh, Notch, what are you putting us through..." I heard Prae mutter. As if on cue, a ghast fired a deadly ball of flames directly at us, and we were forced to scatter. "Run for it!" we all yelled at once, and the voices of the Endermen pierced my eardrums.

"The group is there! Xerox, control the armies and make them pay for entering this Realm!"

I doubled over, uncomprehensive. The voices, they echoed over and over, I could hear them again and again. "_I am only here for the arrival of the Herald of Survivors... So I trust the sabotage was successful... No wonder the dragon keeps you in this prison..._" I couldn't hear, I couldn't see, I couldn't make anything out except for the voices beating over and over again. I felt my mouth open, screaming into the red fog, and my vision becoming less blurry. "_Kill the boy! Now!_"

All at once, I came back to reality. I was on the netherrack ground, fallen onto my knees and crying. Every cell in my body ached with pain, and the hot rock below me didn't help to calm it. There was a scream, and my eyes snapped up to around me.

There was a battle going on around me. Prae and Anna were fighting off the numerous Zombie Pigmen advancing on our posistion while I lay crumpled on the ground. Will was to my left, and he was dodging an Enderman's pressured attacks. Every jump and sidestep was vital, until the Enderman swiped him across the chest. Will doubled over in pain, and the Enderman turned to me. It seemed to be smiling, even though it's only facial features were it's eyes. "Good luck, to the Herald of the Survivors," it said, it's voice piercing through the air.

I crumpled back over. "The voices..." I muttered, and then blacked out.

**TPoM**

I sat in my tent, like I had the morning before. It had only been a couple of days, but it seemed like a lifetime. Notch, he had said his name was, filled all of my dreams, my imagination coming up with scenarios of him torturing people, blowing up the whole of Stockholm for his game.

That wasn't right, though. Shaking my head, I reminded myself for the umpteenth time that it was my duty to refer to him as Markus Persson. I wasn't about to let a madman like that choose his own name. But there was always this little itch inside of me, as if part of me wanted to believe his story that the portal was an idea for science, not for mass destruction. No one had been back in the city since my mission inside, and I was glad for it.

My sleeping bag had provided me cushioning and comfort for the last three days. It was where I spent most of my time at the camp, left here to my own thoughts whenever I wasn't eating or working out to stay in shape. It almost felt like I had been abandoned, quarantined, as if I had done something wrong. I knew I hadn't, but still.

Laying down and sighing at the same time, I thought about the real reason I was like this. I wasn't being punished, it was just that Sweden Spec Ops Team Bravo had only been sent to Stockholm for this brief mission. And since it hadn't gone the way anyone had expected, the four of us were left with nothing to do for three days.

At least I wasn't alone. Reynolds, my tentmate, Long, and Handforth were all in the same situation. Reynolds was reading a book on my right, something called _The Rise and Fall of the Thrid Reich_.

"Reading about World War Two?" I muttered. Reynolds nodded, not looking up from the book. I supposed that it was a good idea to read something like that in the midst of World War Three. The thing was, this war had halved the world's population, and had been going on for almost two centuries. With no technological advances, it was hard for either side to get the upper hand at any given moment.

In short, that was pretty what we had been left to. Reading books about previous wars in the middle of a demolished Stockholm. It wasn't my fault that I was here. My uncle had always had a saying: _The mistakes of our fathers become the burden of our sons._ Wasn't that true. If it weren't for this war, I wouldn't be sitting here for three days, twiddling my thumbs without so much as radio contact to interest me.

Of course, that was about to change.

There were voices from outside the tent. I checked my watch. It was 1230 military time. There weren't supposed to be any patrols passing around the tent for another one and a half hours or so. Whoever it was, they were important. I glanced over at Reynolds. He was too immersed in his history to notice. Sitting on my sleeping bag, I perked up my ears to get a listen.

"So you will be moving them? No offense to them or anything, but for a couple of days they have been a waste of space," acknowledged the voice of Colonel Scott, the head of the Stockholm camp. I think that he was talking about us, and felt some bitter feelings against him.

"Do not be in vain of Team Bravo. They have seen things no man should ever see," comprehended the voice of General Walker. She was right. Some time in a labor camp in Kenya hardens you up a bit, especially when you escape yourself. "Besides, I have bigger plans for them than sitting in tents in your camp."

"Well, if you wish to see them, they are in these two tents."

"Thank you, Colonel Scott. Your service is appreciated."

There were footstep noises as Scott walked away. What followed was silence. Walker cleared her throat outside, and spoke. "I assume you heard that, Sergeant Richter. Please come out here so we can talk."

I stood from by cross-legged position, and lifted the flap of our tent. Reynolds had still not taken notice of me, so I coughed politely. He looked up. "Oh, sorry. Er, bye, Dylan."

I smiled back at him. "Oscar Mike, Reynolds."

Turning away, I caught the stern, unmoving face of General Walker. She might be a woman, but she definitely deserved that position at the top of the US Military. There had been backlash from those who were sexually-oriented, but I had stood by the council's decision to promote her. Meeting her gaze almost gave me second thoughts.

"I see that your friend back there is more than just a member of your squad," she began, at the same time beginning to walk along the line of tents. I followed at her left side, and went red in the face at this proposal.

"Oh, er, me and Reynolds like to joke around at this point of the war cycle," I responded. What? My brain didn't even register what that meant, but apparently Walker did.

"Unfortunately, Sergeant, times like these are not a time for fun and games."

Oh. That was what I had meant. "General, I assure you that it was just that in our personal current situation-"

"Yes, I know it has not been standard for the four of you to be locked in this camp with nothing to do for three days. I'm here to get you out." I couldn't tell if I was happy or disappointed at this response.

"We're moving you four out to Uppsala, it's just northwest of here. The Berngenzi have a large base there-"

"Like every other city in Europe," I interrupted.

"-And we're sending in a force of five squads to take out the facilities. Team Bravo, you and Delta will be infiltrating the main building, an abandoned office in the heart of the city. We think that one of the organization's leaders were recently there, and this opens a possibility for intel about their future plans."

We were passing by the Comm Center on our walk, almost back to my tent. "Sergeant, what happened again when you shot Mr. Persson?" she asked.

It felt like it was the millionth time someone had asked me that in the last three days. Interrogation rooms, during runs, at meals, everywhere, there was someone dying to know why Notch, I mean, Markus, didn't die. "He just absorbed it, like plasma. There's no explanation for it."

General Walker was silent at this. "General, when will we be moving?"

This time, she had something to say. "Suit up, Sergeant. You're heading to Uppsala."

**TPoM**

When I opened my eyes, the red fog was back. It seemed more intense, almost like I sandstorm made of fire. My exposed flesh burned with heat, and my vision and hearing was blurry. In front of me was a humanoid figure, waving me up. Muffled voices came through to me, until I heard her.

"Come on, we have to get out of the killzone while we have the chance! There's a firestorm coming through! You take Will, let's go!"

It was Prae, and her hair was straggled. Why had she woken me up? And why did I have to take Will. Sitting up, I realized.

Prae was holding Anna over her shoulder like a ragdoll, beginning to make her way down the hill to the valley below us. There weren't any mobs in sight, just piles of lifeless Zombie Pigman bodies. To my left was Will, where he had been before, but this time sprawled on his back. There was a large scar across his chestplate, and it pulsated purple. So I needed to carry him? What I perfect way to wake up.

I struggled for a second or two, trying to lift him up on top of my shoulders. He was too heavy for me to do that, though. After many fruitless attempts, his scar stopped glowing purple, and his eyes fluttered open. "What?" he groaned.

Oh, thank Notch that he had woken up. "Will, we have to get out of here now! There's some firestorm or something, and it seems like the armies are holding up!" I ordered, but he sat up without emotion. "Yes, let's go before the Zombie Pigmen come," he responded, his voice emotionless and creepy.

We hurried down the hill to catch up with Prae. It wasn't until I was able to walk alongside her did I notice how bad Anna had gotten it. Her iron leggings were stripped apart, and where you could see through was all a deep, dark red. Her right arm drooped on Prae's back, gashed in multiple places. Only her left arm remained functional, though even it was covered in cuts and bruises.

At the sight of Anna, I noticed out of the corner of my eye Will doing something very strange. When he initially saw her, his cut glowed purple again. "Oh, no, what happened to her?" he muttered, and the light faded to his stern face again. I raised an eyebrow, but he didn't notice me.

When we reached the base of the hill, I offered Prae a break in the workload. Though skeptical, she handed me Anna's limp body, which I draped across my shoulders in an effort to keep my balance. Her heart was beating quickly on my back, so at least she was still alive. But she was losing blood fast, and I feared that she wouldn't make it.

We hurried up another hill, which abridged into another column of netherrack. On our side of the column was a small cavern, with a one way entrance so that we were protected on all but one side. I hurried in and settled down Anna against the wall. There were so many bad injuries, I didn't know where to start. The three of us crouched around her, hoping to keep any signs of life in her significant.

"I'm afraid there's not much that we can do," muttered Prae sadly. Anna lay there, helpless and disheveled, but alive. She was still alive.

And suddenly, her eyes fluttered open. My heart leapt because I knew we hadn't lost her yet. She moaned in pain, and looked around at us.

"Guys... I fought well... Didn't I?" she breathed, barely audible but so important. Prae and I nodded sadly, stricken with another loss. And Will, who was closest to her head, sat unmovingly.

Anna coughed once, and it literally racked her whole body. "It's OK though... I'll be able to see Bianca again... We'll both go to the Aether, right?"

Once more, we responded positively. Why did the good always die? It was never easy to come by victory, but this was just painful. Will was unmoving, though for a second his scar glowed purple again while his face contorted in sadness. He was able to shed one tear before the scar went back to normal, and his icy stare was all that Anna saw.

"Finish... this..." she choked out, and with that her eyes rolled back lifelessly. She was gone.

It was shock that came first, overwhelming the mad sadness inside. I never had lost someone so close and so dear to me in such a sad situation. Every death had always been fast-paced and conclusive, but this was just depressing.

We had always been an odd bunch. But as I raised Monarch, it was apparent that we were only a trio now. I would have my revenge.

**My killing spree is back, but only for a short bit. And this time, it's sad. I cried a little writing this because Anna definitely didn't deserve to die. But nevertheless, it's true.**

** How will they get out of the Nether with the ship blocking the portal? What exactly happened to Will? And will Alex have his revenge? Find out next time in The Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	14. An Unexpected Alliance

** Hello once again, faithful readers!**

** In the latest chapter of The Miner's Destiny, FMF named Will's stone pickaxe Timothy. I don't know, thought I'd say that. It doesn't have _anything_ to do with this story, that's for sure. Well, this is sparking new debates as to whether _this_ story's Will will eat Timothy in the coming chapters. Read on to find out!**

** Also, I would like to pay my respects to the victims of the Colorado Dark Night Rises tragedy. I was thinking about writing a oneshot in tribute to them, but decided against it. Nevertheless, I wish the best for the families of those killed and injured.**

** On a brighter note, I hope that you all vote for the poll on my profile page. This is really important, because it determines which story I'm writing after this. You can check out more detailed information in the A/N last chapter. Make sure that you vote! Please!**

** What else is new in the news... Oh yes, I saw the new Spider-Man movie two days ago. It was splendid, I recommend seeing it. Honestly, I have seen every single Emma Stone movie, and I've seen every Andrew Garfield movie except for the Social Network. Too inappropriate, according to my parents. Nevertheless, word on the street is that his character got screwed over big-time by Mark Zuckerberg. What a jerk. We should all boycott Facebook.**

** That shouldn't be hard for me. I've never used Facebook. Now, some people who are on it every five minutes? That's a different story.**

** Enough with meaningless A/N material! You know what time it is! It's time to...**

** STUMP THE TRUNK STUMP THE TRUNK bum bum, oh oh oh oh oh.**

** Haha, That Metal Show is on in the background. It's really time for the review responses.**

**Shayor****: No, I released her as a Wartortle. Or something like that. Haha, good times in fifth period Algebra. Do you mean I named Alex that because -CLASSIFIED- Check your PM, shayor. Haha, shayor. Shayor, to all you stalkers, is your clue as to why Alex is named Alex. Shayor, find out what I mean by that. I'm sneaky, aren't I?**

**FullMoonFlygon****: You're going to cry when your story ends? (haha, end) Well, you should see me! I'm going to be bawling. Literally. No spoilers, indeed! And as for your hypothesis, good job to you. Hold on, no one can hear me say 'good job' in a nasty little Chicago accent. It's hilarious. Other fun things to say in a Chicago accent: garbage, where are you at?, yeah. Try all of those. It's fun. When you say destined to die, you scare me.**

**Night wl****: Her death shall not be in vain. The Black Ops are not important now. But they will be, all in good time. Poor Will. He's going to kill you with his iron sword for plotting against him.**

**Sea of Fire****: It seems that everyone cried when Anna died. Just you wait until (character who has been introduced in the story briefly and as a minority that you probably never even noticed that he/she existed)'s death scene!**

**Exb756****: Your new profile photo makes me laugh. The Nether Ships are given a name this chapter, so huzzah for that. And why you liked this chapter more than the last few... Maybe it's because you liked watching Anna die? You HORRIBLE MONSTER! O_o**

**RDTFLU****: Dust, firestorms, giant Airships. I've added so much to this story prievously unheard of to Minecraftia.**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: Thanks! Nothing else to say here...**

** And now, without further ado, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 14**

**An Unexpected Alliance**

In only a few seconds, things had gone from bad to worse. Monarch drooped at my side. Sadness overwhelmed every other emotion in my head as I stood on the netherrack floor. I needed something to take my mind of things. I turned away from the scene in front of me, but it made no difference. The image of Anna's lifeless body hung in front of me, like a cloak blocking anything else I could possibly see.

This world had become purely blood and fire. The Endermen had completely obliterated Anna's world, piece by piece until they had taken her life. Grief overwhelmed me next, but at least there couldn't be anymore worrying about who would die in the Nether. I didn't know if that was good or bad. Every time I blinked, a tear squeezed out of my life.

My back was turned to my friends. Then again, the scene in front of me wasn't that great either. The firestorm rolled through, spreading flaming dust on everything that stood in the open. Our small cavern wouldn't protect us for long, but we would have to stay here for now. It was only right for the sake of Anna. Besides the firestorm, there were many dead Zombie Pigmen bodies littered across the landscape.

I hadn't killed many of them, because of what had happened to me. I still don't understand what exactly happened that I kept hearing the Endermens' voices. More guilt struck over me. If I had been able to fight, maybe I could have kept the heat off of her so that she wouldn't have been injured so badly. My stupid head, messing with my instincts. The next emotion was anger, and I wielded Monarch high above my head. This was all the Endermen's fault! I brought Monarch down on the netherrack in front of me, lodging the diamond blade in the molten rock. "I'll kill you all, you beasts!" I shouted, waving my fist in the air to express my rage.

That wasn't how Anna would've wanted me to respond to this. But I couldn't help feeling terrible. The enemy had taken her life apart, from her home, to her family, and finally, her life itself. It didn't make sense. Why would they take her life apart?

For that matter, what was with the taking over of Minecraftia? And now, it seemed, they were trying to take the Nether as well. Pulling Monarch out of the hot rock, I tried to cool myself down. We would leave a memorial. And we would slay every last mob that was hiding in the ship right now.

I turned around, once again facing the scene of Anna's demise. Prae still crouched over Anna's lifeless body. Will sat, staring out into the firestorm with his knees bent up to his face, hiding his new scar. Changing the subject racing through my mind to Will, I wondered what the effects were of the purple glowing effect. He didn't seem himself unless it was lighting up.

Then there was Anna herself. Her legs were coated in drying blood, as was one of her arms. Her iron sword lay at her side, all her armor stripped off and laid to the side. I wanted to leave her in good faith. After all, she had watched my back the entire time that we were in the Nether.

I walked back over to Prae. Her face was less devastated now, sitting against the wall next to Anna's dead body. I placed a sign above her head, reading 'May Anna Pistons rest in peace'. Nothing much, but it was the best we could do.

That was it. The problem was, we still had work to do. "Guys, suit up. We need to find a Nether Fortress."

After securing my armor and readying Monarch, we set out in the opposite direction of the portal guarded by the armies. The netherrack sloped, but we continued on. After an hour or so, I could see a large structure through the red fog. It was a Nether Fortress, looming above us. We would have to assault it and confront the blazes inside.

"Are you guys ready?" I asked, and the others nodded shortly. No one felt like talking after Anna's passing.

We advanced forward at a slow pace, careful to be observant of everything in front of us. The Fortress started as a walkway that went straight through the middle of it to a main building, with large towers on the sides. We trekked along the walkway up to the main building, carefully ready with our swords to not be caught off guard.

There was a small opening in the building, and I led us three inside of it. I put one foot forward, but was unable to observe anything as a Zombie Pigman surprisingly tackled me from the side. It snarled in my face, dripping hot blood and pus on my armor. Struggling to get out from under, I punched it in the face. It squealed, and it's head suddenly came off at the mercy of Murder.

Prae stood above me, staring down at my attacker's limp body. "Thanks," I coughed, disgusted by the beast's bodily fluids.

"Don't mention it," she replied as I got to my feet. There was a tower above us, and stairs that led up to it. We continued up the stairs to the top of the tower, which overlooked the entire Nether Fortress. We decided to make camp in that room for a little bit. Through the windows of the room, we could see that the firestorm was blowing it's way toward us. Will volunteered for first watch, so Prae and I slumped against the walls.

It was hard to fall asleep. There were so many things on my mind. Grief from Anna's death, worries about the Endermen, and most of all, stress about which of my friends would turn against me. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that it would help. After a while, I finally nodded off.

For what seemed like the millionth time, I dreamt. This dream might have been the strangest of all.

The dream started in a room that looked like it was a Nether Fortress. It really did look like one, but my heart told me it wasn't. I walked around, looking for an exit. There was a closed iron door, and a switch directly next to it. I flicked the switch and stared outside.

It was mayhem. There were Zombie Pigmen everywhere, killing each other. Then I noticed that some of them had the swords engraved with the eye symbol, and the ones that didn't must be their opponents. They fought each other to the death, reminding me of wars between people back in the Overworld. But this was casting blood all over the place, all the same species of what was supposed to be civilized.

It seemed that I was on the roof of a building. The fight must be going on here. Down below me to the front was the edge, only visible through the fighting of the undead swine. Endermen and more Zombie Pigmen lined the netherrack ground in front of the building. This must be a temple or something. I checked to make sure I had Monarch, but I didn't. Nevertheless, none of the Zombie Pigmen were taking any notice to me. This seemed very odd.

Suddenly, I heard the horns of more giant ships. They seemed to be coming from behind me. I ran back the way I came, passing the room I had come from, which seemed to stick up atop of the roof, and looked below. There seemed to be a harbor of the ships, all floating above a sea of fire. There looked to be about eleven, with one large space free. That must have been the ship that we had seen.

There were high numbers of Zombie Pigmen on a platform next to all the ships that spanned along side the vast building. They fought like they were on the roof, and instead of Endermen, there was the figure of Herobrine commanding them down below.

"Fight, my soldiers! We must not let them take another Airship!" he cried, waving his fist at the attackers. A bolt of lightning came down from the sky and killed many of the attackers, positioned in the back of their numbers. The stream of undead swine on each side seemed endless. Herobrine's army was streaming from the Airships, the Endermens' coming from inside the large temple. This must be the Temple of the Nether.

As soon as I realized this, the dream faded away into reality. I was being shaken awake, and not by Will or Prae. It was a Zombie Pigman.

I yelped in surprise, and the undead swine groaned in my face. "Get off, get off!" I spat at it, but it hit me in the face and held up it's golden sword.

It must be telling me to look at it, so I inspected it. The golden sword was free of any black eye marking. I came to the realization of what this meant. This Zombie Pigman was not being controlled by the Endermen, which meant it must not be an enemy. In fact, they might help us. The problem with this was that I couldn't understand it, and I was sure that they could not understand English.

I got to my feet carefully. Will had fallen asleep against the wall, and Prae was still in a deep slumber in the corner. There were about three Zombie Pigmen in the room, two of which were guarding an archway to my left which led into a corridor. The last one was the one that had woken me, and it addressed me now. It pointed at me, grunted, and then pointed at my partners. I assumed that meant to wake them up. I walked over to Prae first.

This was sure to be awkward. I tapped her on the shoulder slightly, and her hand gripped around Murder, which was lying to her right. "Who's there?" she snarled, her eyes still closed. "It's me," I responded, and she opened her eyes and surveyed the scene in front of her. "Are they capturing us?" she asked, barely audible. I shook my head in response. "No, they're friendly."

As Prae got to her feet, I walked over to Will. I nudged him in the shoulder, but he remained asleep. At least he didn't snore. " I nudged him again, but he was still unresponsive. "Will!" I said, irritated. His eyes darted open, narrowed to slits at the sight of the Zombie Pigmen. He raised his sword before I knew what he was doing.

"No, Will, stop!" I told him, standing between him and the undead swine. "They're friendly!"

Will lowered his iron sword to his side and snorted. "What makes you think that?"

"Because they're not killing us right now! At least play along!"

Will rolled his eyes, but it was a done deal. The three of us followed the Zombie Pigmen down the corridor and into a larger room. Inside was quite a sight.

There were Zombie Pigmen all around the room. Some were holding their swords defensively, some where lying on the ground, and some appeared to be treating those that laid on the ground with ghast tears. Of course, ghast tears had healing powers, as they were used in many potions of healing.

The Zombie Pigman that was escorting us pointed over to another archway at the other side of the room. It made a number of squeals and groans, leaving us to comprehend what it had told us. "I suppose we should go check out that room," I suggested, so Prae and Will followed me along the rows of the sick and injured into this room.

Inside, there were two guards at the archway. They looked at us, snorted or groaned or something, and let us pass. Ahead of us was a single Zombie Pigman, whose face looked withered and old. His sword, however, was shining gold, unlike most of the others, which were often smeared with blood and grime from battle. The Zombie Pigman squealed something out at the guards behind us, who presumed to block the entrance into the room. Uh, oh. For a moment, I worried that we had been locked inside.

"Do not worry, travelers. You are not prisoners," said a hoarse voice. It was the Zombie Pigman in the center of the room. I was taken aback by this.

"Yes, unfortunately I am the only bilingual of my kind in this Fortress. That is why they presumed me as an Elder, I suppose. Without further ado, I ask you to please address me as such," continued the Zombie Pigman. It definitely was coming from it, so we perked our ears up to listen to it.

"Alas, my Fortress is not in good shape. We have been attacked before, and I am guessing that we will be attacked again. It is only the firestorm amid us that draws back the enemy forces, but it will cease to hold them back much longer. Now, I dare ask, who is the leader of this group before me?" the Elder told us. I nervously raised my hand to my shoulder.

"Glowstone, I presume? Yes, you must be Alex. And your friends, I do not know their names. They are-?"

"Prae," Prae answered defiantly. Her low-trust instincts were kicking in once more.

"And Will," responded Will gruffly.

"The travelers accompanying what will hopefully be the next great hero of Minecraftia. You all have suffered a terrible loss recently, I'm guessing? I am very sorry. But whoever it was, he or she must not die in vain. Since you are here, you might as well accept our help to get you back to the ship that guards your only way out of the Nether. And unfortunately, it must be done in the closing hours of the firestorm. Not to purposely get you three hurt, but because the enemy's defenses will be drastically lower than in normal weather."

I thought this over. Help on a way out? It definitely was an unexpected alliance, but we couldn't leave yet. We still had to acquire six blaze rods. "Excuse me, Elder, but before we leave, we must collect six blaze rods. Do you know where the blaze spawners are in this Nether Fortress?" I queried.

The Elder made a noise somewhat similar to a sigh, and continued to answer. "We demolished the spawners in the coming days of the Raid of the Endermen as to make sure that the blazes were not controlled by them, as many of my species are currently. Before you ask, we do not have any blaze rods. Terribly sorry as I am, you have a decision to make. Will you take our offer or leave it?"

I thought it over. We would have to travel to another Nether Fortress to collect the blaze rods, which would take time. And even then, that specific Fortress might have used the same veto that the Elder here had. It might be best to get out of the Nether while we could. "I guess we'll take it."

There were no objections from Will or Prae, so the Elder called in some guards. There were five of them. It gave them orders in the Zombie Pigman language, various groans and squeals standing for different battle commands. When it was done, it turned to us once more. "Travelers, they will accompany and fight with you all the way until you have entered your portal and leave our Realm. May the best of luck go to you, as Notch knows this opportunity is the best you can get."

Before we left, I turned to the Elder once more. "Elder, when we entered the Fortress, there was an enemy Zombie Pigman that tried to attack us. What was that about?"

The Elder sighed, knowing that this wasn't good. "A scout from the Endermen. We will be in battle again soon. But hurry, you must leave in the closing hours of the firestorm. Hopefully you can make it through alive."

And so we were off. The five guards followed our trio through the room of the wounded and out into the walkway that we had entered the Fortress through. It was now a very different landscape. The red fog had turned to dust, spreading what felt like ash all over us. Every few moments, fire would fall from the sky and light up the ground below it. There was also wind that enveloped us, but we pressed on.

Once we had passed the netherrack column that we had left Anna in, we stopped and came up with a strategy. "Let's go through the tunnels that me and Anna went through to get to the ship since we already know what's up there that way," I said, providing a decent battle plan. We continued along the treacherous landscape and into the tunnels in the netherrack walls.

After some hiking, we emerged into the entrance to the bridge over the sea of fire onto the Airship. I guessed that's what it was called, since Herobrine had called it that in my dream. That reminded me: Herobrine. What had happened to him in the temple? I put my worries aside though as we surveyed the route in front of us.

There was a single Enderman at the other side of the bridge, making sure no one got inside without a fight. And after craning my neck, I saw another Enderman guarding the Nether portal. All of the others must have been hiding inside of the captain's quarters. We devised a strategy inside our tunnel, and then followed it through. Anna and one of the Zombie Pigmen started out across the bridge. Apparently they did understand English, they just couldn't speak it. Anna held out Murder and took a slash across the Enderman's back, which was turned to us.

It made a short yelping sort of sound, and was silenced by the other Zombie Pigman's golden sword. The Enderman crumpled to the ground, and it's chest burst open. Prae gasped.

"What is it?" I asked, hurrying over. There, where it's heart should have been, was a magnificent turquoise pearl. It's inside was swirling and tumbling and making the most beautiful patterns. It looked amazing. I picked it up and studied it. Interesting as it was, we couldn't waste time admiring things like this.

We continued over to the other Enderman. I engaged with it, and it took a lethal swipe at my head. I dodged, and rolled to the side. It's eyes followed me, but one of the Zombie Pigmen stepped up to it and slashed it across the torso.

"Blast! An undead swine that remains loyal to those who rule this land. Afraid you're a pest that has been exterminated," taunted the Enderman in it's cold, icy voice. My ears rang. These things, I could understand them. But every time I listened, I felt like I was going insane. Gripping my ears, I watched as the Enderman gripped the offending Zombie Pigman and seemed to carve the eye in it's sword. The others attacked the Enderman, and followed suit with the now enemy Zombie Pigman. The Enderman screamed once more.

"Comrades! There has been a break-in!" it screamed, silenced by Murder. The captain's quarters door crashed open, revealing an army of Zombie Pigmen. They all rushed at us. I limped over to the portal, which Will was entering at the moment. Once I was there, I looked back at our ally Zombie Pigmen. One of them pointed at the portal, and then to me. It then squealed in rage, and charged the army.

Prae was was waiting for me at the portal. I limped inside as Prae followed me. Maybe we were leaving Anna's body, but she would always have a place in our hearts.

**TPoM**

The building shook as Notch entered it. He feared that he didn't have much time before the place came down, but he had to reach his brother before it was too late. Screams of the undead and gurgling noises from the Endermen echoed off of every hallway. The portal he had come through stood behind him. Little did he know another was being used only a short time away by the one he sought to protect.

Notch hurried along a back hallway, a short cut that was probably not as occupied by the Endermens' armies as the main hallways. As he entered a corridor, he drew the attention of five Zombie Pigmen in the room. He hurriedly conjured a bow in his hand, enchanted with Infinity, and fired shots at all of the swine. It took about five seconds, but they were all dead within that little of time. Notch hurried along the corridor.

He continued this way for what seemed like an endless amount of time. After a long while, he came to a window overlooking the Airship harbor. Down below was his brother, fighting alongside his army. Notch analyzed the scene, took in the coordinates, and thought /kill. Being a god made battle so easy. The entire area was obliterated of mobs, and Notch broke a hole in the wall and jumped down to his brother.

Herobrine watched the Guardian of the Aether land next to him, but shook his head. "Notch, you shouldn't be here. This is a war that neither of us can fight, and I am only making my last stand."

"Brother, there is a break in the waves due to my powers, and now is the moment for you to follow me back to the Aether," Notch protested to his brother. Even though they fought sometimes, Notch wanted his younger sibling to be safe in the world that he had created.

"I can not leave my armies alone. Though they may be relatively brainless, I have learned to respect them. Leaving them now wouldn't do them much good, no?"

Notch sighed. His brother didn't understand. "Herobrine, I need to ask you something before I leave. Where-"

But he was interrupted by a loud burst of energy above him. Floating above the Temple of the Nether was an orb of glowing purple material. What in the world was that?

"So, you think you can come here to warn your brother, Notch?" screamed an icy voice. Was that an Enderman? It couldn't be, no one could understand Endermen.

"Notch, you have to leave now," Herobrine said sternly, but Notch held a finger to his lips in response. He wanted to hear this.

"No one can understand us, if that is what you're thinking. But I have learned some from listening to your stupid civilians die, and I figured I would try to voice my opinion for you. This hurts incredibly, talking in English, so I will make this short and sweet.

"You created us! Your pesky Glowstone can understand our language! We don't not know what you are doing, but you must know that we will always be there to kill you!"

"Notch, run!" screamed Herobrine as the ball of energy sped toward where Notch had just been standing. Had, because he was sprinting at breakneck speed through the main hallways of the Temple of the Nether now. "Goodbye, brother!" he yelled into the oblivion, and threw himself into the portal back to the Aether.

It wasn't until the blue mass swallowed him up, transporting him back to his home dimension, that he realized. He hadn't been able to ask where Alex Glowstone's portal to the Nether had spawned. Because if the Endermen were altering code like the Valkyries had reported twenty minutes ago, then there would be some serious problems in this war.

**And now, the war is getting ugly. I can't believe where I'm taking this, with Zombie Pigmen villages and /kill commands. This is getting nuts!**

** How are the Endermen altering code in a now-legitimate world? What will happen to the Elder and it's village? And will Herobrine's so-called last stand be successful, or will he fall to the Endermen? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	15. Sun and Moon Again

** Hello once more, my faithful readers!**

** I'm back with more TPoM, and this chapter has a really cool chapter name. As soon as I started writing this story, I figured that as soon as they got out of the Nether, the chapter after that would be called this. I don't know, it just kind of stuck. Catchy, though, isn't it?**

** Speaking of catchy, why don't you check out the new summary for this story? It's much cooler, in my opinion, so just read it. I want to hear what you guys think of it in your reviews.**

** Also in the news, I completely redid my profile page on the website. It's not complete yet, but it'll be there. Eventually.**

** I also moved the G+ page officially over to DeviantArt. This should make it easier for you guys, considering that many of the readers of this story already have accounts on that website. No art is up yet, just a sole journal that I posted a couple of minutes ago. So check it out at .com**

** Happy birthday to two people who are celebrating their special day today! One is my friend -UNDISCLOSED NAME- who is celebrating is thirteenth birthday today. Well wishes to you, -UNDISCLOSED NAME-. I also think that you said that once you were thirteen, you'd get an account here so that you wouldn't have to lie about your age.**

** Which I admit I did. I'm still only twelve, and for a good ten months even today. But look what I have done: this story! So hooray for my success, and the best of wishes to all you others!**

** The other birthday I want to wish is to Fernando Alonso, my favorite F1 driver, who finished fifth today in the Hungarian Grand Prix. It's his 31st, I think. He also leads the standings by 40 points even now, so huzzah!**

** And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, on the edge of your seats: the second OC contest! Yes, it is finally here! Check my profile page for rules, description needs, and nothing else. I always try to say three things, but it didn't work out this time.**

** And now, onto the review responses!**

**Shayor****: No, I chose a Squirtle as my starter. So yeah. And I edited the grammar error that you mentioned, as to clean up my quality standards. Thanks for pointing it out.**

**RDTFLU****: I don't want to make this an adventure map considering the amount of time dedicated to that. But that would be a good idea.**

**Mdog30****: I looked over the chapter and didn't find that mistake. Are sure that you didn't read it wrong? And thank you!**

**Exb756****: The Nether does make for a good story, considering it's intricate generations and possibilities. So I agree.**

**Night wl****: That was just a fun thing for me to say. Shrug. Anyway, you should post your story! I'd love to read it!**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: It was quite a list of reviews, and I have to say thank you for the huge amount of support!**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 15**

**Sun and Moon Again**

There was a brief moment where I caught the sensation of flying. Hanging in mid-air, unsupported. I would have laughed, chuckled, maybe even yelled in happiness. But then it was apparent that I was just shooting out of the portal at high speed, happening to be in mid-air because I had dived in, and then there was impact.

My face slammed against the cold stone wall. After that, I slumped over on the ground. I had a headache. Blinking and watching as my eyesight adjusted, I stared at the wall where my head had clobbered it. I could have sworn there was a dent in it. Shaking my head to try and regain full consciousness, I looked around the room. We were back in the basement of Fort Imperial's common room. Will was waiting at the ladder for us to climb back up, and Prae was waving her hand in front of her face, presumably to make sure that she was seeing correctly. It was true, using the Nether portals gave you terrible vision afterward.

"Ugh..." I groaned. The room felt abnormally lopsided. "I'm going to bed, no matter what time it is."

After following Will up the ladder and briefly greeting Gavin with some leftover rotten flesh from the Zombie Pigmen that I had killed, I slumped into bed. The blankets here were so much more comfortable than the netherrack floor that I had slept on over the past few hours. As I lay on my pillow, looking up at the dark midnight sky, I fell asleep peacefully.

**TPoM**

Will didn't know what was happening to him. He didn't have control over his body. It was a constant fight, like an infection that was controlling him with no end in sight. In the moments where he was able to regain control, he was able to show his true emotions. The sadness burdened inside of him when Anna had died, only to be let out in a small moment through a single tear.

His mind didn't have control over his body, in short. It was a very peculiar feeling. Will could still see everything, hear everything, and feel anything, but he couldn't move his eyes or arms. They just, kind of, moved for him. Whatever was making this happen was scaring him, and there seemed to be ideas rolling in his head that he hadn't been thinking. They ranged from meaningless to abominable, and they all conjured themselves in his brain as if he had thought of them.

As he watched Alex climb up out of the common room's basement, words and voices swirled inside of his head, ideas that he would never think of. "_There is the target. Do not achieve the goal yet. We mustn't destroy everything so early._" Will didn't understand these notions, but he knew one thing: he didn't like them.

What really had saddened him was that Anna had died right in front of him, and he hadn't been able to do one thing to prevent it. All that Will had been able to do was sit there without control of what he was doing as Anna lost her life right in front of him. She had even looked at him as she died, and he had been unable to give her the reassuring comment that she deserved. The thing was, the night that he had found out for the team that the Blazing Angels had visited her, she had come under shocking revelations. She had told him in her distress that she liked him.

And he felt the same way.

But now there was no way for that to work. She was dead, and there was nothing that he could do about it.

After following Prae outside of the common room, Will's body carried him around the building on the right side. Facing him was Timothy, the pet pig. Normally, Will would have bent over and said hello to his friendly pig. Though the swine was incredibly dim-witted, the two had grown very close over the year that they had spent together. Or rather, Will had grown close to Timothy. He wasn't sure that the pig had any specific feelings for him. After all, he was just a pig.

Instead of greeting his pet, more of the icy, sharp voices pierced his mind from inside of his head. "_There! Free meat!_"

_Oh, no_. Will had his own thoughts briefly, and tried what he had done before. Whenever he strained, trying to move his hands with a huge amount of concentration, he was able to control himself for a brief moment. He tried again. Without control, his arms delved into his backpack and brought out his iron sword. _Oh, no._ Will tried again, harder and harder. His iron sword arced up into the sky and was brought down onto Timothy. All that was left of Timothy in a second was a small uncooked porkchop, and the fading memory of the pig's final squeal.

_Timothy..._ In a cruel change of events, Will was tearing bits of meat apart and stuffing them in his mouth. _Timothy..._

"Timothy..." Will sighed, and looked down at his chest. The scar was glowing purple with his high emotion level. Realizing what he could do with this opportunity, Will looked up and opened his mouth to yell out. He had to warn Prae and Alex. He didn't know what was controlling him, but he knew that it had something to do with the Endermen. "A-"

"_Quiet, you._" The Endermen definitely had something to do with this. He had to warn his friends, he just had to figure out how. As his body slid under the covers, he thought about how he was going to sleep for the first time in a year in the Overworld without Timothy at his side. As his eyes closed, Will's heart was filled with sorrow. He may not have control of his his movements, but he had control of his feelings, at least.

**TPoM**

I opened my eyes reluctantly. The pillow felt soft against my head, adding comfort to it after I had slammed into the wall yesterday headfirst. Or at least, I think I did. Yesterday still seemed a bit fuzzy in the back of my mind. Touching my hand to that spot on my head, it was definitely certain. After withdrawing my finger quickly, I came to the conclusion that I might actually be hurt. Like, injured hurt.

No, I couldn't be. It was against my nature, and I stood from my bed to proved myself correct. I didn't want to touch my head, considering my 'injury' of sorts.

It wasn't hard to take my mind off of things as Gavin walked up to me. He gave a small bark and wagged his tail to show his enthusiasm that I was up. The dog must have been waiting for me, so I inspected my toolbelt. There was the rotten flesh icon with a small white fourteen in the top right corner of it, which I supposed meant that I had fourteen rotten flesh to give to Gavin. I fed him one at that moment, and then walked outside into the crisp morning air.

The sun had risen, hanging just above the horizon in the early morning. I walked over to the common room and changed the date to June 13th. After this, I leaned against the wooden wall of the building with Gavin at my legs as we waited for Will and Prae to awake. A cool wind flowed through the air, making my hair wave around in the breeze. Sighing as I waited for them, I decided to make use of my time. Rounding the side of the common room, I stopped as Anna's house loomed before me.

It seemed eerie to see something like that. The dwelling place of one of the deceased. I shook my head, clearing my mind. There was nothing that could be done about that, I reminded myself. All that was left was to take down her house and fill the spot with dirt. After all, no one was living there, so all it was was a waste of resources.

Thinking about it, that sounded really mean. But it wasn't as if we wouldn't forget Anna.

Taking out Monarch, I headed down in between Anna's house and Will's to the river dock. The farmland had made some progress in growing some more wheat. It would definitely be a good investment, considering that we were running low on bread and meat for food.

That wasn't why I was at the river, though. I stood to the side against the dock and submerged Monarch inside the water. The diamond sword didn't look as clean and shiny as it had before the trip to the Nether, considering that it had encountered a good amount of Zombie Pigmen, dirt, dust, and a firestorm. But as the water flowed against it, the grime and dirt slowly washed away.

Next to clean was my armor, which I seemingly wasn't wearing. I must have taken it off last night before I went to bed, even though I didn't remember doing that. Even so, it was good riddance that I had. My helmet dipped and was washed down in the water, as were my chestplate, leggings, and boots, all of it iron. I was left standing on the dock in my bare clothes, a red T-shirt with blue jeans. I had never really analyzed what I wore when I lived back in Imperial Plains, I just kind of threw something on and hoped that it looked good.

Now this was kind of my standard look, going along with my blue eyes and dirty blond hair. As my iron armor was washed in the flowing water, I dipped my legs into the water, sitting down on the dock. It felt cool against me, and sighed happily. The sun was now floating a bit higher, but my back was turned to it. I lifted Monarch back up out of the water. It was shiny now, but I knew better than to touch it. Even just brushing your hand against the blade of a diamond sword was enough to hurt you.

Gradually, I took all of my armor back out of the water and placed it in their respective positions on my toolbelt. I didn't feel like getting up, though. Instead, I rested there, my legs kicking slightly back and forth in the cold water.

A shadow passed over me. Figuring that it was just a cloud, I didn't move, but continued to stare off at the river as it flowed off into the desert from our plain. It wasn't until Prae spoke that I looked up at her.

"You've been on the run for almost two weeks now. How does it feel?" she asked, sitting down next to me. I looked at her. She, too, was stripped of her armor, only wearing what she would've as she walked around Magnam Civitatem on a daily basis. But those days, like mine, were long gone, and the two of us were left as nomads. So how did it feel?

"Lonely. I feel lonely, somehow. Like, I know that you and Will are with me, but I'm so used to the bustling and constant talk of other people from back in my city. Now that that is all gone, I don't feel like I'm surrounded by friends all the time. Plus, I can't trust either of you because one of you is going to betray me. No offense," I added, considerate enough to make sure that Prae knew that I knew she was sitting next to me.

"None taken," she answered thoughtfully.

"But it all seems so twisted. That if the way that you or Will betray me is trying to kill me, can I just run and leave the other behind? Or do I have to fight back, and maybe even kill one of you. It's so terrible, it does make me feel alone."

I felt more alone than ever since Prae had lost trust in me because I wouldn't tell her why I had supposedly spawned somewhere else in the Nether. It was time to let her in on the truth. I couldn't bear to be this alone anymore. So as we sat in the early morning, I explained to her what I had seen in that room with the purple fog. Once the story was done, Prae stared at me, trying to comprehend how significant this might be.

"They're obviously Endermen, though you probably knew that. But the ability to understand a different species' language is not something that you see everyday. I think it's truly fascinating!" she wondered.

"Yeah, it's fascinating alright. Not if you're the one getting trapped in small rooms and collapsing every time one of the Endermen speak," I muttered.

Prae gave me a disapproving look. Nevertheless, she continued. "I am worried about you two. You with your ability of sorts, and Will with his scar."

Will's scar... I had forgotten about that thing. He had gotten it from an Enderman, and it seemed like he wasn't himself unless the scar was lighting up purple, which it seemed to do very seldom. It was disconcerting. All in all, it was just another reason not to trust another person.

"We have to watch each other," I told Prae. "Maybe I can't completely trust you, but there's no reason for you to turn on me. Whereas Will isn't exactly in the right piece of mind. Watch my back, will you?"

"It's a deal," Prae replied, and we shook hands. The water rippled around my legs comfortably, giving me a false sense of hope. Maybe I didn't have to be so alone after all.

We sat there for a while. Will seemed to not want to wake up. Eventually, after a while, Prae followed me away from the dock and back up to Fort Imperial. From there, the two of us walked over to Will's house and knocked on the wooden door.

"Will, wake up! It's ten in the morning, and you're still not up," I yelled. There was some walking around and scuffling, as if he were putting something away, until he emerged, completely decked out in his iron armor. But now, his chestplate had mysteriously mended itself across the middle so that his scar wasn't visible.

"How did you do that if you just woke up?" I queried, pointing at his chest. Will looked down at his chest. Now that I noticed it, he looked wide awake.

"Oh, uh, just had a spare iron ingot lying around. It kind of fit in, you know?" he sputtered. He looked kind of nervous, as if he were hiding something. At this point, I was sure that he was.

Nevertheless, the three of us set to work. Will would be going down to mine, Prae would be harvesting the wood from our tree farm and replanting everything, while I would go find some more food.

As the others set out to work, I walked back over to the river. Taking out a fishing pole that I had had in my chest, I threw the line out into the water. After some very dull minutes, I had collected a decent amount of ten fish.

As I walked back along the dock, I heard a voice. Turning, I wondered who it might have been. Prae was still harvesting her farm, still at a distance and not close enough for me to hear what she was saying. Will was nowhere to be seen. I must have just imagined it.

Back inside of my house, I loaded the fish that I had caught into one of the furnaces with some coal so that it would be more useful when we ate it. Waiting for the fish to cook was a bore, so I walked over to my crafting table.

I had just remembered that I had collected some glowstone dust back in the Nether so that I could make a block of the material inside my house. I took out the four pieces of glowstone dust that I had with me and pieced them together on the workbench. Together, they joined and bundled until they became a single block of the light source. Fascinated, I placed it on the ceiling in the dead center of the room and took down all of my torches. The single block of glowstone lit the room more than four torches had. Besides, I need more of the fiery light source for expeditions.

The furnace stopped spreading warmth from it's spot in the room, so I walked over and examined the contents. There was still a decent amount of coal left, so I crafted that together with some spare sticks into twenty more torches. I also collected the ten cooked fish.

Sitting on my bed, I nibbled away at one of them. The hot food felt good in my throat, considering I hadn't had much to eat during our trip to the Nether. Nevertheless, all of the scratches and bruises that I had retained gradually faded away as the food gave me a new sense of strength.

Deciding to split the remaining food among the three of us, I headed out of my house. Prae was just exiting the tree farm, her backpack looking particularly stuffed with wood, and the wooden tree farm covered in small saplings. "Hey, here's some fish," I told her, and then handed over three of the cooked meats over to her. The process seemed a little awkward. She gave me some of the wood that she had collected in return, and we walked into the common room, waiting for Will to emerge from the mines.

I leaned against the stone table in the center of the room in silence. Will seemed to not be coming out of the mines. I checked the sun's position in the sky. It was already about four o' clock. "Maybe we should go check on him, just to make sure he's OK," I suggested to Prae.

"He's probably fine, just hit a large vein of some valuable materials. Let's wait a little longer. Anyway, the more ores he finds, the better equipped we all are," she responded. Shrugging, I walked over to one of the bookcases and pulled out a copy of _The War of the Creepers_ to kill some time. After all, if I needed to something to help me wait, I might as well read something that would better educate me on my knowledge of the world we were living in. I didn't read much, but this is how much I got through.

_ Wars were a common thing in the old world, a world called Earth. This world is not known to us anymore, but many memories and instincts from our ancestors there will kick in. One of these is the desire to fight those who pose a threat to our existence, even those who it is possible to negotiate with._

_ The War of the Creepers, and so forth, was perhaps the bloodiest chain of organized crime and battles in the history of Minecraftia. The war started when the common villagers began to summon Iron Golems to defend their villages from the creatures of the night, such as zombies, that wanted to destroy it. In an effort to be able to take down the villages more easily, the zombies' knowledge and strategies were sharpened and tested, and they began to prove as a mighty force as they attacked in large hordes._

_ Unfortunately for the undead, the Iron Golems still proved to be able to take on their large numbers. The zombies needed a new force, something that could surpass the steel monsters that thwarted their schemes. So the zombies developed a project in secret whereabouts in the night to create a new mob that would be able to terrorize the Iron Golems, villagers, and maybe even the Minecraftians themselves._

_ The zombies were successful, as they created the first creeper. Well-known as a hostile today, the zombies trained the creeper to use it's powers and regenerate itself farther into the night. This ability, known as resurrection_, _is used by zombies, creepers, and skeletons alike to make sure that their numbers can never be cut down over the course of time. The creeper breeded, and all of it's offspring could use the ability to explode and destroy those around it, and reform after some time had passed._

_ Nothing like this had ever been seen by the Minecraftians, so they staged a fight to try and get rid of the new phenoms. It became a war, the only true war in Minecraftia's history. The Minecraftians fought a long time, and eventually destroyed the cells in the creepers that allowed them to resurrect themselves in the same night as their killing, which held effect to lower their numbers. Of course, the deceased creepers, zombies, and skeletons resurrected themselves once more the following night, but this proved effective enough to let the Minecraftians destroy their numbers, and leave the creepers to become just another mob._

_ Creepers had different forms, as well. There was the normal creeper, which had a decent sized blast radius and damage. When a normal creeper is struck by lightning, it becomes a _charged creeper_, a mob of the same variety, but with more destructive powers._

_ The war consisted of many major battles, including the Battle of Ir Qas, the Battle of Mt. Wolfpack (which advanced the technology of the city's architectural defense mechanisms forever), and the Battle of Fryr City._

After reading that last part, I looked up to see Prae staring out the window facing the mine entrance's large cobblestone building. "I think that he might be in trouble," she mused, not turning from her gaze on the structure. "Let's go after him."

I readied Monarch, my iron armor, and my diamond pick, all to be safe. Once Prae slipped on her helmet along with the rest of her suit of armor, we stepped out into the late afternoon together and hurried over to the cobblestone building. As I opened the door, another flash of guilt wove it's way through me; Anna had constructed this building out of her spare time.

Prae walked directly to my right, both of us ready to flank anything that might happen to pop out at the other's blind side. Heading down the natural staircase, we made our way through the right passageway at the fork in the tunnel and continued down through the hallway. Without noticing it, I stepped on a stone pressure plate. My foot triggered the small click, which registered in my head what had happened. The two of us glanced down and observed a long trail of redstone light up brightly. Following it at a jogging pace now, we heard a sharp bell from somewhere. Was that a noteblock?

Prae and I emerged on the ledge into the large ravine. The redstone wire headed straight down into a noteblock that was embedded in the side of the wall at the very bottom, next to an iron door activated by a switch. We hurried down the staircase on the right and over to the door as it swung open, revealing Will in his armor, and holding a diamond pickaxe.

Raising my eyebrow, I made the first comment. "Diamond pickaxe? Where did you find that?"

Will looked from the pickaxe to the noteblock, and then back to me. "I found some diamonds, and a lot of redstone. So I just made this for fun."

"What's in there?" Prae asked accusingly, pointing at the now closed iron door.

Will seemed even more nervous. "Er... Nothing, really. Just something I'm working on."

It was really obvious that Will was hiding something now. I just hoped that we found out before it was too late. With that, the three of us made our way back up the stairs, through the tunnels, and back into the heart of Fort Imperial. After giving Will his respective amount of fish and wishing them well, I headed into my house. Gavin was bounding around, waiting for me to get home.

As I watched the moon slowly rise out of my window, I heard more voices. They weren't audible, but I could hear that they were icy, almost like an Enderman. Then Gavin interrupted by barking at one of the furnaces, growling, as if it were receiving more attention than him. Nevertheless, the plains through my window stretched on endlessly, and there wasn't an Enderman in sight. Just rogue hostile mobs, nothing to worry about.

There couldn't be an Enderman here. I must have been imagining it. Laying down under my blanket, I wished the world a good night. I must have been my imagination. It had to have been.

**There's an easter egg of sorts hidden in here. Specifically, it's that one of the town names in the book about the War of the Creepers is named after the World in Which We Fail village Ir Qas. I love that story. And another one is named after Syndicate's Minecraft city. So yeah. Good for me. I also made Will eat Timothy, as briefly mentioned in the latest chapter of TMD. Not of his own **_**will**_**power, of course, (ha, ha) but still.**

** What is Will hiding in his newly constructed room? Did Herobrine survive his battle, of which we heard nothing of this chapter? And when will the second OC contest winners be announced? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	16. Come Hell or High Water

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** Today, we journey back with Dylan Richter in his next mission: to execute an Intel mission in Uppsala, Sweden. However, things aren't what they always seem...**

** Make sure to keep sending in OCs for the contest! This time I'm not closing it right away. But for all future submissions, can you please send me them by PM so that the reviews aren't spammed with them? I don't have a problem with it, I just feel more organized in the judging when everything is in one place.**

** An update on it: there are four that I really like, although I won't name them to be fair. None of them have secured a spot though, keep in mind, so there is still plenty of time for you to submit your great idea! There will be five winners this time, and I'm sorry to say that this will be the last OC contest in TPoM. So make sure that you send them in while you have the chance!**

** Also, make sure that you all vote for what I write first after TPoM on my profile page: the sequel, or the prequel. Visit Chapter 13's A/N for more information on it. Also on my profile page is a list of ideas I have for my future writing.**

** Exciting news: I will also start working on a side project, a companion to TPoM called 'The Limits I Seek to Surpass'. It will document Jessica Sandstone's story from meeting Alex and Prae again to her reappearence. O_o Spoiler Alert. Also, I will have to pace this along with the story because I can't give away too much until after Chapter 20, which will also be the halfway point of the story. We're almost there, everyone! So close that I can taste it! Anyway, I'll try to submit the first chapter to Jessica's story sometime later this week.**

** Also, I'm honored to announce that I am the official beta for the very popular, well-written story The Miner's Destiny by FullMoonFlygon! I can't express how cool this opportunity is, and I hope that she can return the favor for Jessica's story. I don't want anyone betaing TPoM just because I want these chapters out as soon as possible.**

** Also, contact me if you are on the PS3 and are a fan of CoD:MW3. I'm going to make a clan on Elite, even though I don't have Premium yet. I'm buying it when BOII comes out. But, I need you all to contact me if you want to be part of the clan because that would be flipping awesome! :D**

** And now, on to the review responses!**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: Your feeling about Will is not ill-advised. It's pretty obvious that he's the betrayer, now, but nevertheless...**

**PyroPotter****: Thanks for the submission!**

**Exb756****: I stated a while back in a review response (not to you, O_o) that I have a serious case of DIEMAINCHARACTERSitis, a disease which causes the victim to be extremely careless to their story's character's lifelines. I have a very serious case, as you can probably tell. And no one trusts Will anymore. I feel bad for Curtisimo, it's not his fault.**

**Shayor****: Meh. I don't care about it's and its. That's the only grammar rule I could give something about.**

**Sea of Fire****: The five OCs will come at a time when Prae and Alex need them most! I might as well stop pretending that Will is still part of the group, because he's as good as dead once Monarch and Murder are his enemies.**

**Night wl****: Six blaze rods, not a bad idea. But no, unfortunately not. And I read your story and reviewed, it definitely shows promise.**

**FullMoonFlygon****: I was buried under your avalanche. But here I am... Anyway, I like water-types. I don't play Pokemon anymore, though. Too much MW3 and LBP. Curtisimo used the same name for both characters, so it's his own fault, anyway. Yes, for some reason, he can't remember his time in the Nether all that well. Why? O_o**

**Tetrajho****: Thanks for the submission!**

**Ptrip3****: Thanks for the submission!**

**ArghanaMarleka****: Thanks for your submission!**

**Kyanite Archer****: I was having trouble coming up with names for the battles, and Ir Qas came to mind. Just a fun easter egg, one might say.**

**RDTFLU****: iPod Touch... I have no idea, try looking it up on Apple?! O_o**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 16**

**Come Hell or High Water**

My tent was packed, my helmet was set, my gun was loaded. It was time for us to move out. Making sure that my MP5 was ready, I looked over at Reynolds. The others were all waiting with me outside of the Comm Center. So was a lone member of an old Strike Force team that had been wiped out. The Delta helicopter would be picking him up to join them from some other base south of here, as would the helicopter dedicated to Team Bravo.

Even though we were in the north, the effects of global warming had taken their toll on what used to be a snowy land year round. Now, in June, Stockholm was almost like a desert, also considering the entire area had been blown to bits two centuries ago. The air was filled with dust, which created small sandstorms at random intervals. These did no harm through my visor, but it definitely made seeing from a distance harder to do.

Reynolds, Handforth, Long, me, and the other guy, who's name was apparently Private Sharp, waited out in the heat. It had been a day since General Walker had told me it was time to leave the camp in Stockholm. In fact, with Team Bravo's departure, the camp was being shut down so that the Resistance forces could move to a more secure location. There wasn't anything in Stockholm for Anonymous to want, anyway. Save the portal to Minecraftia, of course.

The noon sky gave way to the two helicopters flying in from the south. They were Pave Lows, heavily armored, and hard to bring down. The one on the right was filled with Team Delta, so my group followed me as we established ourselves on the left side of the Comm Center. The Pave Low touched down in front of me, and the doors on either side opened. They were sliding, almost, and left a large area exposed. Climbing into the helicopter, I greeted the briefing officer sitting next to the pilots but facing us, and took a seat on the right side of the chopper. Reynolds sat next to me, and as the others boarded, I looked around.

The four seats Team Bravo was occupying faced the center of the chamber. They were spiraled and bolted to the ground, so I figured that we could swing to face the other way, which would be outside, if we were supposed to fire at something. There were also miniguns raised to the height of the chairs facing the electronic sliding doors, which confirmed my last idea. Beneath the miniguns were hooks for attaching rubber ropes. This was used to deploy soldiers from a helicopter, but while in midair.

Once Long and Handforth sat down, the sliding doors closed. Our only sight outside was bulletproof glass at our eye level, so that we could see where we were going. Roughly, but still.

A voice came over the intercom, the pilots in the cockpit giving us a message. "Team Bravo, we are lifting off and heading northwest. Welcome to the Helix Three Two." I assumed that that was the name of this specific Pave Low.

"Welcome, Team Bravo," began the officer, facing us with a face of steel. "Today, you should know what you'll be doing in the rough. Operation Firestorm. Our goal is to take out the Nordbankshuset, a building outside of the town square. The Anonymous forces have been using it as a meeting place, and there might be some files or intelligence there that could be vital for us. Your mission is to infiltrate the building, load it with C4 in the areas we have marked on this chart," the officer briefed us, holding out a map of the building with red astrixes where the C4 was to be loaded, "Find any information we need, and get the hell out of there without stirring up a hornet's nest. Then, you can start up the fireworks show.

"We're dropping you off a block south of the Stora Torget, or town square, in an intersection. The majority of Anonymous forces are on the eastern side of the Fyris River, which runs through the city, while our target is on the west. It'll take a long time for anyone to get across the river and through the city.

"Team Bravo, you, Alpha, and Delta will all be assaulting the building and filling out the mission. Charlie and Echo will be guarding the LZ for your extraction, a courtyard near a cathedral five blocks west of the target building. You have thirty minutes to complete the mission before dust off at the LZ. We have to finish this, come hell or high water. Good luck, team," the officer finished, leaving the map of the building out for us to see. There were multiple spots for us to load the building with C4 along with Alpha and Delta on all three floors. After studying it for a bit, the pilot's voices came over the intercom once more.

"We're adjoining the group of Helixes. Stand by, we are in formation for the attack. Team Bravo, be advised, we will be at your deployment site in T-minus three minutes," the cockpit warned us.

Waiting was boring without anything to do. I checked to make sure that I was equipped with everything that I needed for the umpteenth time, until a loud noise broke my comfort zone. A smoke trail was visible through the windows. Rockets, trying to knock down our helicopter. We must have been passing through the eastern side of the side of the city.

There was cursing through the intercom, words I would not like to say. There was some important talk, though. "Damn! I thought the Recon squads took out the SAM sites!" yelled one of the pilots.

"Apparently not! Bravo, we're spinning your chairs and opening the doors! Anything other than one of our Pave Lows is hostile!" commanded the other. The bolted chairs swung around as the doors opened up, revealing a city turned into a battlefield.

The architecture was all very old on the eastern side of the city. This didn't stop Anonymous from setting up forces all over the place, including SAM sites. The Pave Lows flew in a V formation, ours the second on the left. I could see one branching off in front of us, another our level, and another behind us. I assumed that there was another behind us on the other side, which would complete the formation.

"You heard the cockpit! Strafe run, men!" I shouted over the now loud noise of our Pave Lows' rotors cutting through the air at high velocity. Holding the mounted minigun, I pulled the trigger. There were countless enemies on the ground, and I moved the gun to hit anything below. There were SAM sites all over the place, and my bullets hit them with great speed and power.

"There! On the deck of that building!" yelled Reynolds from next to me. There was a large SAM turret firing missiles at one of the helicopters, manned by an Anonymous soldier. I changed the direction of the minigun and obliterated the balcony. There were still four missiles from the SAM turret, and they went berserk without remote control guiding systems. The rockets flew up and dipped and dived, making the area very unsafe. After a bit, they scorched back down to the ground and exploded on the vacated streets.

Our V formation was continuing at a steady pace. Firing hot lead into the ground, I barely heard the cockpits shout over the noise. "T-minus ninety seconds!"

The ground was being torn apart by our blows. Reynolds and I communicated by giving each other rough positions of an enemy SAM site, of which we would then blow apart. This continued until a SAM turret launched four missiles at one of the helicopters. We had been too late. Before we could take out the missile operator, the rockets smashed into the helicopter even with us on the strafe run. The Pave Low's rotors were damaged, as was it's tail. It seemed that the missiles had only hit in the spots where it would count.

"Helix Three Four has been taken down. That's Delta, for you guys," one of the pilots told us over the intercom. The Pave Low that had been hit spun out of control, it's altitude descending below the rest of the strafe run's so that it wouldn't take us all out. Team Delta was surely to meet their deaths. As if to capitalize on their misfortune, another SAM site hit it and completely blew the chopper to bits. All that was left of their team was the silhouettes of their bodies falling behind us to the ground from the remnants of the Pave Low.

Still, we pressed through our flight path. Now that one of the teams was down, we would be five men short. In fact, of all the helicopters that went down, it had to have been the one carrying the most people. The helicopter leading the strafe run fell back into our position so that we looked more organized. Below us passed the river, signaling us crossing into the western side of the city. "T-minus fifteen seconds!" yelled one of the pilot.

There was no more fire from the ground below on this side of the river. "Everyone hook up to the latches! We're air-dropping you all in only a few more seconds! Richter, take this. It's a guiding system for Predator Missiles. We have a UAV holding them, now go!" the operator yelled, giving me what looked like a computer as I latched a rubber rope onto the latch. Once that was done, I stowed away the Predator Missile system into my rucksack, which was filled with other supplies, and prepared to rappel out.

The Pave Low stopped in midair above an intersection, with a town square one block north, like they had said. One of the helicopters, presumably Team Alpha's, stopped with us, while the other two continued on west. "Rappel out, Bravo!" the officer said, and I jumped off of the helicopter, the cord suspending me in midair.

About halfway down, a rocket flew up from one of the buildings. It must have been a hidden RPG. Flying up into our Pave Low, it hit it and gave the cord a mighty lurch.

"Ahhh!" I shouted in surprise as the Pave Low flew off. I was still descending, and the three others on my team smashed into a building on the intersection through the windows. I was flying toward it, and steered the rubber cord in.

The glass broke under my weight, and I went sprawling down. Quick to unlatch myself from the cord, I made sure that I wouldn't be pulled away by the rogue helicopter. After that, I studied the room around me. It was completely vacant except for Team Bravo and a ton of shattered glass. I pulled out my radio, needing to make contact with Overlord. The Comm Center's voice came through the speaker before I could say anything, though.

"Team Bravo, do you read me? Your Pave Low's down. Do you copy?"

I choked up to the radio, my voice barely audible through my deep breaths. "Overlord, this is Bravo. Give us the sitrep."

"Bravo, glad to here you made it. Give us your position and we'll give you your route to Team Alpha. They made it to the intersection, just to tell you."

I crawled to my feet and looked out the window. Below was Team Alpha in the intersection, waiting with their guns ready. There weren't any forces coming for them, though. "We're in a building, third floor, and out the window in Alpha directly below us. Looks like the town square is to our right."

"Alright Bravo, looks like you guys are directly above the deployment station. All the forces are heading toward Helix Three Two's crash site. A worthy distraction, should make your infiltration of the Nordbankshuset easier. Get down the stairs of your building and rendezvous with Alpha at their current position. We're patching you in to their radio feed right now."

All of a sudden, more static came through, and a new voice. Looks like we had a three-way radio conversation, now. "Overlord, this is Team Alpha leader Sergeant Hudson. Where the hell is Bravo?"

"Hudson, this is Sergeant Richter of Team Bravo. We are Oscar Mike toward your position from the building on the right. Hold your fire, we'll see you in a second."

"Alright, Richter. But watch out, we have a mass array of enemy heat signatures in the lobby of your hotel building. Looks like you have a firefight on your hands."

"Thanks for the sitrep, Alpha." I switched off the mouthpiece on the radio so that my voice transmission wouldn't go through anymore, but I could still hear if Alpha or the Comm Center, aka Overlord, were trying to communicate with me. "Alright guys, we're Oscar Mike downstairs and to the left intersection. You know the drill; watch your corners, check your shadows. Intel says there's a lot of Anonymous downstairs, so stay frosty."

With that, Long, Reynolds, and Handforth got from their feet, combat boots crunching on the broken glass shattered around the room. I checked to make sure that my MP5 was loaded with a full magazine, and then we started out of the doorway into the hallway so that we could head downstairs. We headed down it to the left.

The hallway was empty and dark, making the scene very eerie for us as we headed down it. Keeping my eye trained on my gun's red dot sight, I made sure that there were no enemies every two seconds or so before we put another foot forward. The room's floor was blackened, as if explosives had gone off but it had maintained it's frame. At the end of the hallway was a door marked with a staircase logo, and next to it was an elevator door that was wide open, leading into the shaft.

Positive that there were no forces on the third floor with us, I hurried over to the door into the staircase and looked through a small window at eye level. Unfortunately for us, there was a good stream of fifteen soldiers heading down the stairs from higher floors to the bottom to go investigate the crash site. There was no way that we would be able to take the stairs.

I waved my hand at the others to signal them to come over to the elevator shaft. There were coils that drooped down to the bottom. There seemed to not be an elevator, however. We would have to climb our way down.

I whispered my idea to the others, as to not alert any enemies in the staircase or the ones who might be hiding in the other hotel rooms, and tested the coil with my gloved hand. It was made of a hard metal, so it looked like it could hold. I grabbed it with my other hand, and then slowly inched down the coil. It was a very silent maneuver, and I stopped in front of the elevator shaft door on the ground floor. It was open, and there was no one in the lobby. I dropped down and stayed under the cover of the wall above the floor, so that I could vault over into the lobby at any moment. First, though, I waited for the rest of Team Bravo to come down the elevator shaft. Once we were all there, I threw a flashbang into the lobby to make sure there was no one there.

Of course, flashbangs made a particularly loud noise, so there was a shout as one of the enemies heard it and started coming our way. Putting my face in my hands, I cursed at myself. I had been so sure that the room was empty, but someone must have been behind a wall. Nevertheless, we had a firefight on our hands if we wanted to get to Team Alpha alive.

Bullets flew past me, and I stuck my head up to get a glimpse of the enemy. There were five men, all hiding behind makeshift cover like overturned tables or cement supports. Our cover would prove better, though, and I raised my MP5 and shot at one who's arm was sticking out from behind a post.

The body fell to the ground, and another man raised his gun and fired blindly at the elevator shaft. Long and I fired away with our short range guns, while Handforth and Reynolds stood at either side of the opening and shot at the targets that were farther away. After there were no more shouts or fire from the other side of the room, I climbed into the lobby and led the way to the right and outside the doors.

There was Team Alpha, with Sergeant Hudson watching our position. We grouped together, and I nodded to him, confirming that we were the adjoined group that he needed. I slung my radio to my mouth and voiced in. "Overlord, this is Team Bravo, we have reached Alpha. We are going for the target building now.

"Negative Bravo, there's a mass amount of enemy activity in the Stora Torget right now. Word is you've acquired a Predator Missile system. Take out the majority of those forces, and then make your way into the Nordbankshuset."

I cut out the radio, and then got out the computer from my rucksack and opened it. Inside was a holographic grid of the city. I zoomed in to the west side, and then zoomed in onto my position. I had never used one of these before in the field, but I knew how. I pressed the fire button and steered the screen using a grip so that the Stora Torget and the fifteen enemies or so showed up there. I kept the grip in place, and looked up from the guiding system as the missile streaked down from beyond the clouds and obliterated the town square. Dumbfounded by the attack power, I looked back at the computer to see another grid of the city, ready for a fresh attack. We wouldn't need it now, anyway, so I closed up the computer and stowed away.

"Ramirez, you take point. Let's move in to the Stora Torget and into the target building," commanded Sergeant Hudson, addressing one of the members of his team. Working together with another Special Ops group meant that I wasn't the only one with authority. I could use a break, though.

We followed Ramirez up the wartorn street and past a small gate into what would have been a lush garden of trees and flowers. Instead, a huge crater from the Predator Missile dominated the scene, spreading ash and fire across what must have been a nice area before. There could also have been dead bodies from the attack, but they must have been obliterated. Nonetheless, there was still smoke everywhere, and it was clear that no enemies had survived.

"Team Alpha-Bravo, be advised, there is a large amount of foot-mobiles heading your way from across the river. We suspect some of them to be heading for the crash site of Helix Three Two, but they will undoubtedly launch an attack on your group. ETA ten minutes," Overlord told us through both Hudson and my radios. If that was the case, we would have to double-time it to make sure that we could scour over every corner of the Nordbankshuset.

"Alright, you guys know the drill. Take every room and make sure that not an inch of space goes unchecked. We need this information about the Anonymous leaders, and there will surely be some here. Now let's go!" I ordered, leading the way around the crater and through some French doors into the former bank. All of Team Alpha headed to the upper levels, as did Long and Handforth. Reynolds and I stayed on the ground floor because there weren't as many spots for Intel, except for the safes, which had been left open.

Behind the reception desk was a door, making the lobby empty and worthless. We both vaulted the desk and I walked through the door, while Reynolds looked through the files all over the desk to see anything that might be deciphered as military code. Through the door was the large walk-in safe, the titanium door's hinges bent at an abnormal angle, giving me a free path in.

Inside was a discussion table in the middle, where the Anonymous meetings must have taken place. It was sort of dark, and the table was bare, so I moved over to the back wall. There was a desk here, lit by a a single lamp. Across a wooden board nailed to the wall was a bill of every single type of currency in the world from before the war had started: dollars, pounds, rubles, even euros. Though this was peculiar, it couldn't mean anything. What interested me was a manilla folder with 'Top Secret' painted in red across it's front. Snatching the files, I opened it up because there was time. Inside was a mass array of battle plans, and though this was interesting, there were also files detailing where future meetings would be held and the attendees of each one. This would be incredibly useful. After going through all of it, I came to a file. There was a map of Scandinavia, each city with Anonymous representation highlighted in green, and those controlled by the Resistance in blue. Stockholm, however, was not highlighted any color, and instead surrounded by a large red circle. A red line using the same utensil turned into an arrow leading to a blank part of the page, where words in pen were scrawled out:

_Attack Stockholm on the twentieth of June: acquire Intel at the Mojang building, and take no prisoners._

Anonymous had been quiet in their major attacks of our soil for a week or so, the last being a failure in a siege of Copenhagen. But now that we were moving our presence out of the area, their forces would be free to take anything they wanted. What would happen if they tried to destroy the portal? Or worse, if they tried to use it? I had never forgotten what Notch had told me back in the Mojang building. There would be terrible consequences if Anonymous could take control of the portal to Minecraftia. This was not good.

Stowing the files away in my rucksack, I hurried back out to the lobby. Everyone was making there way downstairs, and no one seemed to have found anything except for me. After announcing this, my radio buzzed in. "Alpha-Bravo, you have ten minutes until your exfil, be advised, make your way to the site before the Anonymous forces get to you. ETA one minute."

Suddenly, the entire building shook. We hadn't been able to load the C4, so I hurriedly shouted to the group, "Throw the C4 everywhere! Let's just rig the building and get the hell out of here!" I then threw my explosives against the wall next to the door leading to the safe, and took a glance out of the door to the Stora Torget. There was an infinite number of Anonymous soldiers marching up the street, some of the loaded with RPGs that made the entire building shake. We would have to cross the street right in front of them, so I opened up the Predator Missile system to buy us some time.

Quickly zooming into our location, I guided the missile into their front lines, easily killing thirty soldiers or so. There was still a large amount, but they were farther back. "Go! Let's get to the exfil and rendezvous with Charlie-Echo!" Amid the cloud of dust, we sprinted across the street and headed along the road. My radio sounded in.

"Alpha-Bravo, this is Charlie-Echo at the extraction point. Are you getting here or not? Your asses aren't safe on this side of the city."

"We're double-timing it to you! Hold your fire for the first eight men to get up the hill, and kill everyone else!" I shouted into the device. True to my word, there was a large hill in the road that we had to climb up. We had made it three blocks to the west, and were almost to the extraction point. The enemies were just starting to round the corner onto our street.

"Let's take them out! They're not getting up this hill without a fight!" I yelled. As we ran, we shot our guns down at them. My MP5 didn't have that far of a range, so it wasn't very accurate. Even though my bullets weren't hitting the people I wanted to hit, it was still taking out a good number of Anonymous soldiers.

We finally reached the top of the hill, and there were our forces shooting down at the Anonymous men. They had tossed a red smoke marker to signal our exfil position, as everyone fired down at the enemy, I spoke into my radio. "How long until extraction, Overlord! We might not hold out much longer!"

"Bravo, we're sending four AH-6s to your spot to get you out, ETA five minutes. Think you can survive that long?"

"As long as the only come from the downhill slope. If we're flanked, we're dead." Turning off my radio, I focused on my red dot sight and shot down a soldier. We would have to hold out for a long time; there was a good amount of soldiers left, there would probably still be some alive once we were gone. At least they were bringing in AH-6s; helicopters designed to get forces out quickly, but they didn't carry any heavy firepower or armor. Hopefully all four would make it here unharmed.

After much hassle, shooting, and grenade tossing, the helicopters came into sight from the west. We were moving our camps out there from Stockholm, so wherever they were coming from, we would be going next. I was correct in my theory, there were still many Anonymous men hiding behind the cover of dead bodies and old cars, firing up at us from below.

"Spec Ops Teams, your rides are here. We suggest you board immediately, enemy armor is coming in from the east." Sure enough, a large tank had turned onto the hill from the Stora Torget, and one shot came dangerously close to our summit, spraying dust and old pavement up into the air. The AH-6s, thankfully, touched down, and I boarded one with the rest of Team Bravo. No sooner had I sat on the metal floor, holding on to a bar set up in the back next to an ammo cache, had we lifted up into the dusty air, free from the terror below. My feet dangling in midair, I smiled. We had completed the mission. Little did I know we would be sent back out to Uppsala two days later for the armor assault of the city. If we could get influence here, we would have a major city that still had a population in the north eastern parts of the city in our control. I didn't know this though, as I was lifted up on the AH-6. I was just happy that we had made it out alive in thirty minutes.

** A chapter without our heroes doesn't mean it has to be uneventful, as shown here. This could prove to be one of the most decisive chapters in the story.**

** What will happen when the Resistance returns to Uppsala? What will the Resistance do about the Intel that Sergeant Richter has acquired? And for Notch's sake, what happened to Herobrine? Find out next time in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	17. The Only One I Ever Trusted

** Hello once again, my faithful readers!**

** Once again, it took me forever to update. The reason for this, as I've already posted on DeviantArt, is that a had a terrible case of writer's block. So, here we are with Chapter 17.**

** I don't really have much to say in this author's note. Although I would like to give a shout out to some story that I promised I would give a shout out for. It's gonna be called something like Minecraftia's End, or something, and it comes out on the 15th. So go check it out once it comes out, I suppose.**

** So yes. I also paid tribute to the Olympics this chapter. I can't really advertise since it ends tomorrow afternoon, but I suppose that it's cool. I'm watching the marathon tomorrow. So that will be cool.**

** And thank so much everyone, we're over 7,000 hits on the website! This is epic!**

** And now, on to the review responses!**

**FullMoonFlygon****: Congratulations on being the hundreth reviewer! War talk is easier for me considering I play so much CoD.**

**Night wl****: You're last name was used? Are you perhaps Patrick Sharp's son, whom I named the Team Delta operative after? O_o**

**exb756****: OMG Thank you so much for naming this your favorite story on the site! I'm like obsessed with The Gathering Storm. It sucks that you deleted Blood Money because one day, I was like, OK, I have to read this tomorrow because its the sequel to TGS. The next day I logged on and you deleted it! So it sucks that I can't learn more about those guys, Nat and Wil and the whole crew.**

**Captain Sparklz****: A lot of it was inspired by MW3, including the use of Predator Missiles!**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: I like the seperate plotline because of chapters like that. And you will know what happened to Herobrine soon. Soon, not now.**

**MinecrafterRin****: Wow, thanks! I'm glad to see that you like the story so much. As for your question, DeviantArt is a website where you can post drawings and journals and stuff, but I use it to send out updates on my story. And thanks for your submission!**

**AstuteSage9****: I don't always update fast, but when I do, I drink Dos Equis. Stay thirsty, my friends. O_o**

** .3****: Thanks for the compliment on the story!**

**Theshanepig****: I've never really been one for good dialogue, but as you said, I'm working on it.**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 17**

**The Only One I Ever Trusted**

The day broke with rays of light pouring through the window onto me. Though I should have been rejuvenated from my long sleep, I only felt more tired than I had before. I still felt very apprehensive about how I kept hearing the voices of Endermen. It wasn't normal, I was definitely sure of that.

I looked over at the side of my bed, where Gavin was snoring quietly. I reached over and scratched him besides the ears, considering that I didn't have anything else to do. This wasn't a very good use of time, so I walked over to the workbench. I realized that it would be a great idea to start creating an enchantment table, but I didn't have the materials needed. Sighing, I sat back on my bed.

The single block of glowstone cast light over the whole room to accompany the sunlight. This continued my normal musings about why I had to be chosen for the prophecy. Everything had gone downhill, all because of that stupid name. The glowstone brought back memories of the Nether. For some reason, though, they were all faded in one aspect or another. I could only remember certain parts of our trip, but not the befores and afters.

I remembered staring down at Prae, Will, and Anna as they fought Zombie Pigmen, but why was I above them in the first place? I remember swarms of them surrounding us in the midst of a firestorm, but why were there so many concentrated and attacking us? I remembered a hallway of Zombie Pigmen, all injured or caring for the other wounded, but why were they not even looking at us, let alone not attacking us?

Whenever I tried to think of the general happenings around the specifics that I remembered, my mind went all foggy and I once more heard the distant voices of Endermen. There was no alternative to what was happening to me: I had to be going crazy. Plopping down on my back, I tried to decide what else to wonder about. Instead, I was a carried away by a memory from when I was still in school in Imperial Plains, the day that changed my aspect of life forever. It was the day I knew I wanted to be a fighter.

I was eleven years old, and in only two weeks time, Imperial Plains would be hosting the Inter-City Competitions. The ICC were an event held every four years to showcase the greatest athletes between the three main cities of Imperial Plains, Mt. Wolfpack, and New Copenhagen. The host alternated every time the Competitions were held, and the year that your city was hosting them was a year to be celebrated.

In 2216, the Competitions were being held for the twenty-fifth time, marking the hundred year anniversary of the first Competitions held in Imperial Plains itself. There would be a special celebration that year, and in the weeks leading up to it, each grade of children were given the opportunity to learn more about the history of the ICC and how the Competitions would be operated in the coming event. Imperial Plains was being completely decked out for the return of the Competitions, including sculpture of a torch lighting up the entire city with glowstone standing atop the Royal Guardsmens' building.

The day of the eleven year old's orientation, I rose from my bed in my sweet old mahogany wooden house. We were to meet in the center of town, and would be starting the day with a private showing of how the Opening Ceremonies would be orchestrated to start the learning with a bang. This was an extremely cool opportunity for me, and I bounced my way down Sandstone Street to the center of town.

The town square always looks the same, accept for when the ICC is in town. Normally, it is set up with the stage and trees and long rows of flowers. During the Competitions, though, the stage is transformed into a building where the medals are presented to the winners of the different events. The winner is awarded a gold medal, second place gets an iron one, and third receives a medal made of emeralds. It is always considered an honor to represent your city in the Competitions, and you are a celebrity when you receive first place. Each town sends three athletes per event, and those athletes must do everything in their power to win.

The events are crazy, including the fastest runners, the longest throwers, and the individuals with the greatest balance. The athletes are all unbelievably in shape, but in reality they are only everyday people who have jobs around their city.

As I walked into the town square, I spotted my friend Tanner. I hurried over and greeted him, where we speculated on what was to come.

"I heard that there will be a guest speaker," he told me. I hoped that it was Usain Iron himself. Usain was a fast sprinter, and held the record for the fastest times in all of the sprinting races. These would be his third Competitions, so he had established himself as a legend. All I knew of him was his sports persona, but not of who he was when he worked around Imperial Plains. Whatever he was, I had wanted to be just like him for a good two years. He was my idol.

"I hope that it's Usain Iron!" I exclaimed to Tanner, but he shook his head.

"Usain is too popular. He wouldn't do a publicity stunt like that. Me, I think it's going to be Zeke Mahogany." It was typical of Tanner to hope that it would be Imperial Plains' best bet at a swimming medal. Besides, it wasn't like Zeke wasn't a figure in our town, too.

Once everyone was assembled, our teacher that year, Mrs. Glass, called for everyone's attention. "Everyone, now that we are all here, I would like to introduce Mr. Snow, the President of the Inter-City Competitions!" she announced, beckoning to a man with graying hair and an obnoxious dark purple blazer.

"Hello, future men and women of Imperial Plains. Today, you are being given the opportunity of a lifetime: to go behind the scenes on the sport that the three cities hold dearest! If you will follow me to the hospital, we will board a train, and you will see a rough angle of our Opening Ceremonies!" he announced, and began leading us down Cobblestone Corner to the town hospital. The train station that led out of the city and to the other two, and various other locations within the political country that consisted of the three cities.

The minecart train carried us far and away, through a forest and then into a plain. There, we were showcased a stadium built of iron, designed to hold over ten thousand people. It was astonishing.

After coming off of the train and walking through ticketways and such, the twenty students in my class entered a balcony near the top of the stadium that gave us a view of the entire field. There, standing against the railing was a guest speaker, just like Tanner told me there would be. And it just happened to be Usain Iron himself.

The sprinter proceeded to give a speech to us about how it was so important to study and work hard in school. It would've sounded like a routine lecture, but this was coming from my hero! After he had finished a story about how he had discovered his unnatural sprinting ability, he accepted questions from us. No sooner had he announced this than my hand shot straight into the air at a speed not even Usain Iron himself could match.

After he nodded at me, I asked him, "What's your job in Imperial Plains, 'cause I want to be just like you someday!" I know it sounds dorky and stupid, but this was incredible for me.

"Well, if you work hard, you can defend your fellow citizens as a Royal Guardsman. It's a great honor to be one, and you could say that my scenario is one of a kind," he replied. As he continued to answer other questions, I envisioned myself fighting criminals alongside Usain Iron in the Royal Guardsman uniform. These visions eventually shaped into just me, and also shaped into a new motive: just to stand up for my city and fight, like I did best. Either way, I was determined to become a Royal Guardsman.

Back in reality, however, there was no political foundation for me to become one anymore. All that was left of my reality's civilization was two people that I couldn't trust and a dog. Sighing, I walked outside and studied the farm on the river. Everything was growing well. I looked over and saw Prae harvesting some wood at the tree farm. Deciding it was time to do something, I walked over to her.

"Hi," she said, not looking up from her work. I greeted her, and asked if there was anything I could do. "Nothing really. How about you check on Will? I think he's back in his secret room in the mine."

That seemed like a good idea, I thought. "I wonder what's in there..."

"Yeah, it troubles me sometimes when I think of what he could be doing in that room," Prae responded, clearly not in the mood for conversation. She leaned over to check how much wood she had collected, and in her backpack I saw a bucket of lava. What did she need that for?

"I'll go see what he's up to. Hopefully he has some more diamonds or obsidian, I've been thinking about making an enchantment table," I told her, and continued to the mine building to see what Will was doing. Climbing down the stairs, holding Monarch all the while, I thought about what Will could be doing. There were some bad thoughts in my head right now about him, but I pushed them aside. The small click told me that I had stepped on the pressure plate, and after that, I heard a small bell ring at a distance. Will knew I was coming. I hoped my thoughts about his small room weren't correct.

**TPoM**

The world that Will had created around him was not what he wanted. Everything wasn't in his control anymore. Nothing was rational, and nothing seemed right.

Will had seen Timothy die, seen Anna die, seen his conscious mind literally destroyed. There wasn't much time left before the Endermen that were controlling him used his body as a weapon to kill Prae and Alex before they could do anything.

As Will watched his hands sharpen the diamond sword his body had secretly created within his hidden room in the ravine. The room was filled with all kinds of tricks and trades. If Will could somehow alert the others of the things he had created unconsciously, then they would have such a large armory of things to use toward their travels, they might never have to mine for ores again.

Of course, that was an exaggeration, but if you looked at Will in the moment, he wasn't exactly poorly equipped. Along with his diamond sword, the Endermen inside had decked him out in completely diamond armor. He carefully took this armor off and replaced it with the standard iron armor that Alex had built the entire group a while ago.

Some other things that he had built included an enchantment table with the fifteen surrounding bookcases to give it a maximum enchanting power and a jukebox. He didn't have any discs to play it with, although he did have the noteblock. And at this moment, it happened to ring.

Either Alex or Prae was coming. As Will turned to the iron door, he lifted his diamond sword. The thing was, he wasn't hurriedly suiting himself up with the iron armor. Was he giving way to the hidden room? Will suspected not; he opened the door, diamond sword in hand.

"_It's time_," a voice inside of his head said. Will was going to kill Alex. He had to stop himself.

His mind writhed around, screaming and trying to take control of his body for long enough so that he could warn whoever was coming. It was now clear that either he would die, or the others would die. Will had to make sure it was him. Stepping through the iron door, Will braced himself. This was going to get ugly.

**TPoM**

The stone steps carried me down into the ravine. The bell had gone off, so I was just waiting for Will to appear. And then the door opened, revealing a man with a diamond sword and armor of the same mineral. Since when did Will have diamond armor?!

I made sure that all of my iron armor was secure, and then continued down. I could here the Endermens' voices again. Even though I could, I wasn't able to make out what they were saying. There was no question that the icy whispers were Endermen.

I reached the bottom of the stairs and turned to Will's figure. He stared at me, as if waiting for me to come over. "Hey, Will! What are you doing down here? Prae and I were just wondering to make sure you weren't in trouble or anything, so, yeah," I called out to him, not quite smoothly but straight to the point.

"Well, my dear friend Alex, wonder no more," Will responded, except it wasn't him speaking. His lips moved, but it wasn't his voice. It was an Enderman's. This was not good, and suddenly I remembered another part of the Nether. Will had been scratched by one of the Endermen in some battle there. I don't remember anything else, but it must have taken control of Will like they had to so many of the mobs that were now part of their army.

Will's figure started forward, a decent twenty meters between us. I readied Monarch. Even if it was Will somewhere inside, I still had to defend myself. I couldn't kill him, though. I'd have to force the Enderman out, or something. For real, though, I knew it was hopeless.

"You're so naïve! Why would you not look into the room earlier, when my defenses were lowered in sleep? Alex, your prophecy ends today," Will rasped. As he grew closer, I noticed his eyes were a full purple. He was probably getting the source from his scar in the chest, but that was covered by diamond armor. Maybe if I hit him there, the Enderman would leave him.

Will began running, and I seat-rolled to the right as he charged past. His sword swung dangerously close to my leg, but I managed to stay unscathed. As Will turned around, I stood to my feet and held Monarch in a defensive position. His sword ripped through the air and clanged into mine. The force of it sent my arms flailing, while Will stumbled backward from the abrupt stop of his sword.

I had to get up to the surface somehow. It was too dangerous down here, with all of the lava and the possible scenario that a hostile mob interrupted our fight. Sidestepping another hack from the evil-consumed Will, I ran off on his left, leaping over a small pool of lava and hurriedly started back up the stairs to the landing above the ravine.

Will hurried up after me, and as he reached the top, I swung Monarch at his front in an attempt to disarm him from his sword. The weapons met, and Will lost his balance for a second, teetering over the edge of the ravine to a long drop. I turned and sprinted through the caves, not caring if Will had fallen or not. Odds were, he hadn't.

Of course he hadn't. Midway up the stairs back to the cobblestone building built up above the mine, I heard an angered scream from the depths below. "Get back here, Alex! You'll die anyway!"

"Not on my watch," I panted, and burst through the wooden doors into the sunlight. I had to warn Prae before Will could attack her. She was walking up to her house, armorless and her back turned to me. Not a good situation if some rampaging killer was coming on your blind side.

"Prae!" I yelled, hurrying over with Monarch at my side. "Prae! Will's attacking, you have to be on your guard!" She looked back at me, and then opened her door to go inside. Hopefully she would be putting on her armor, making sure to be ready. I hid against the wall on the side of the mining building, waiting for Will so that I could catch him off guard. If I could disarm him, it would make the fight a lot easier. Keeping my eye around the corner so that I could see him when he came out, I braced myself with Monarch at my side.

The doors blasted open, giving way to a seething Will. It wasn't really Will, though. How should I have addressed him? Anyway, I bolted forward while he looked for me on the left and hooked Monarch with quick fury at his sword. He wasn't ready for it, and he lost grip of his sword as it clattered to the dirt ground. Will turned to me, eyes a deep purple, and swung his fist at my face. I dodged it and backpedaled a few feet. Seriously? He wasn't going to give up very easily.

He kicked at me, where he made contact with my shin. I grunted in surprise, and saw his fist come at my face. I ducked just in time, and he began chasing me back to his house across the small town. I reached his door, and kicked it open. Unfortunately, the time that I had taken to knock it open cost me the time it took for him to punch me in the right shoulder, hardly. I dropped Monarch to the side of the house and stumbled in. There was the usual bed and workbench, but it was fairly empty. It was clear that he would rather work in his secret room in the ravine than in here. I stumbled over, and fell against the bed. Will walked up to me, his fists clenched, ready to beat me to death if he had to.

"You are just another obstacle in the Raid of the Endermen. I will bring my armies here if I have to! Why don't you look at my true form, for a second. This body is useless, anyway," Will snarled, and bent over, staring at me all the while. Out of Will's body's mouth came a black smoke which formed the place of Will, the latter being thrown against the wall. The smoke became an Enderman, staring at me, hell bent on killing me. I was doomed.

The block in the roof directly above the Enderman suddenly hollowed out, giving way to the blue sky and a sweep of silvery brown hair. It was Prae. I had a chance, maybe small, but a _chance_. No sooner was I enlightened of this than the hole was filled up by a lava source block. It slowly oozed down toward my attacker. Sitting on top of the bed, I listened to the Enderman's final bidding. "You will die. My armies are already coming to assist me." And then, no sooner had it said that that it caught on fire.

An icy scream pierced the air, giving my head the sensation that it was being ripped apart. The lava source block disappeared, but the Enderman remained ablaze. He burned away, and collapsed to the cobblestone ground. He slowly faded, leaving only a crystal pearl identical to the ones in my toolbelt. It zoomed into my belt as Prae appeared in the doorway.

"Thanks for that," I breathed. She wasn't the traitor after all, I realized. She was safe.

"No problem," she told me, but we were interrupted by a raspy voice coming from my right.

"Guys... I'm sorry. It wasn't me, I swear. The Enderman was controlling me," choked out Will, dying on the ground. It seemed that the Enderman had drained his energy, only to die a couple of minutes later. It didn't look good for the man on the pig.

"I've seen a lot of things. I slaughtered my pig, I watched Anna die. She loved me, do you know that? But you guys, you have a lot left in the tank. Go, finish this.

"And you guys need to check out the room in the ravine. I, or rather, my alter-ego, made a lot of stuff down there. I think it will be useful, or at least some of it. You guys have to remember me and Anna. Don't let us die in vain."

Will's eyes were not purple anymore, but they faded of all color a few seconds later. Willheim Mycylium was no more. I decided that we would build a memorial or something to commemorate Will and Anna. Because Will was right; we couldn't let them die in vain. All that was left in the room was an eerie silence. This was broken by a loud sob from my left.

Prae was misty eyed, staring at Will's lifeless body with tears streaming down her face. She was never one to like a mob dying, but a human friend was something much worse. She looked up at me, catching my eyes. I wasn't exactly in a bright mood either, so this seemed very depressing. "Why does everyone have to die?" she sputtered, staring at the charred stone floor.

I had no answer for that. As I stared out the windows at the midday sunlight, I wondered what the answer to that question was. Maybe it was just luck. Or karma. But neither Will nor Anna had done anything wrong to make them deserving of such a penalty. Maybe it was just the fate of the hero; the heroes always end up dying in the end, no matter how hard they try to fight for what is right.

"It won't be in vain," I muttered, promising that I would slay every Enderman in the world in response of Anna and Will's demises. Prae looked back at me, and wrapped me in a hug, sobbing into my shoulder. There was no way I could comfort her right now, but I let my arms slide around her back.

"I'm not going to die, am I? There was only one death, and only one traitor. So I'm safe, right?" Prae cried, staring at me with those bright red eyes. Would she be OK? She would, I told myself, because I would protect her. "You're the only one I ever trusted..."

We stood there in each others arms for a few minutes, neither of us saying a word, but our minds were jumping along subjects and ideas at rapid speeds. Prae would be OK because I would protect her, because she needed to be alright, and because I would always be there for her. Because maybe, deep inside of me, I loved her.

Everything felt like it was in a dream after that. We broke apart and delicately lowered Will's scarred body, still fitted with his armor to signify strength, into a dirt hole next to the door of the common room. I placed a sign at the head of the dirt covering him, reading '_Here lies Will, not the traitor he could've been._'

After everything, Prae and I sat together on the dock like we had yesterday, our legs waving in the water as we sat and did nothing. I was giving us a break for today. At sunset, I changed the sign above the common room to tomorrow's date, June 15th, and wished Prae a good night's sleep. We both left each other, heading into our small houses.

As I lied under the covers of my bed, I watched Gavin eat some more rotten flesh that I had given him. There was a good thing, though, that would help me sleep. There were no more Enderman voices haunting me, as they must have been coming from Will's mind. Also, I could safely assume that Prae wouldn't die under my watch. I fell asleep imagining a perfect world, where no one died in vain. Monarch was ready in my toolbelt, just in case the Enderman's army showed up. I was sure that it would soon.

**Sorry again guys for the long wait, but look at this! I think we all knew Will was the traitor, but now we're back to just Prae and Alex. Just like old times, huh?**

** What will happen when the Enderman's army attacks? Will Anna and Will die in vain? And what happened to Herobrine? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	18. Exodus

** Hello once more, my faithful readers!**

** I have a stunning anouncement to make: I now have glasses! Of course, my physical appearance has absolutely no concern to you, but I just thought that I would say that because it's awesome.**

** Now, down to business. I've been getting a lot of complaints from my own brain cells that I'm writing too much about Dylan Richter, aka Mr. Black Op. I know that this is supposed to be a Minecraft story, but instead I'm turning it into an MW3 one. Fear not, for those of you who agree with those parts of my subconcious! This and next chapter will be the last we see of our friend in the Resistance forces.**

** Also, go check out the next chapter of The Miner's Destiny, which should be coming out either Sunday or Monday. You probably know of this story as it's way more popular than mine, but this coming chapter is significant because it is the first one betaed by anyone. And, if you're stupid enough not to get the hint, it was yours truly. So go and check it out!**

** The chapter after next, although you probably knew this, is when the OCs are introduced! I've already selected five winners, and I've contacted those who won already. I think.**

** Don't really have much to say here, so it's time for the review responses.**

**Sea of Fire****: Torturing is in my blood, and it's easier to do if the victims are imaginary.**

**Night wl****: Darn. For a second, I thought I had met a Blackhawk's relative. Well, your story is really good. I'll have to review it again considering that you've put out so many more chaps, but yeah. Keep on writing!**

**Exb756****: It's OK that you deleted it. Not that big of a deal. Three thumbs up, though. I don't know how that would work, but I have some pretty vulgar ideas...**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: An army awaits! Victory shall be the couple's!**

**Curtisimo****: :D**

**Mellifluousness****: Obnoxious is annoying. Some shades of purple, in my opinion, are annoying. OK, now I take back what I said about the Endermen; I won't kill Obsidian, he/she/I forgot is awesome! Ze Ballad of Ir Qas! We await it's arrival! And we have more Herobrine, but you don't know what happened yet! :D RAGE QUIT**

**FullMoonFlygon****: I guess that it could have been emerald, but I wanted to stay true to the gold system. But there's no bronze or copper in Minecraft, so emerald it is! I honestly think my battle scenes are terrible, but keep the compliments rolling! :D I'm on a :D rampage today.**

**Theshanepig****: It made you cry? I didn't know that my story was so bad it made people cry of disgust when they read it.**

**NethanielShade****: Hello, fellow CoD lover! Because I feel like making this response longer, this question has been burning my mind ever since someone asked me in a Team Defender lobby: What is the better SMG: MP7 or PPNOM1? JK, I'm not that bad of a dork. It's the PPNOM1, though. :D (Oh no, not this again)**

** Well, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 18**

**Exodus**

My dream began in a flaming house. As I came to my senses, I realized that I was back in Will's house, but before it had been ravaged by his possessed body and the Enderman. I guess that I held some of the blame, too. It turned out that the house was on fire, though. The wall's were ablaze, and the air was smoky so that I couldn't breathe.

All of a sudden, a bunch of purple particles appeared, giving way to an Enderman. It stared at me, once again warning me of the mob army that would be coming for Prae and I. The fire once more devoured the shadow figure, and I was left standing on the cobblestone floor, weakened from listening to the voice of the Enderman.

The cobblestone floor faded into netherbrick, and I was standing on a dock. All around me battle raged, Zombie Pigmen terrorizing each other. I looked around, realizing that I must be in the Nether again, and searched for Herobrine. It wasn't long before I heard him yell in rage. "Leave, you filthy beasts! This Realm is mine!"

The icy voices of the Endermen responded from behind me. "We will not leave until you give us your ships! And we will capture you, as well."

"I can't even understand you freaks! Why are you back, anyways...?" roared Herobrine. After squeezing my way through more fighting Zombie Pigmen, I could see him hanging on the Aether cloud mast of one of the Airships. He didn't exactly look so hot; his face was tired looking, as if he hadn't slept in a couple days. He just looked weakened in general.

The Zombie Pigmen defending Herobrine looked tired as well, like they had been working for a lot longer. I suppose that they had, considering that the Endermen had been scouring all of the Nether to collect them for their army. One of them was speared next to me, falling off of the dock and into the sea of fire. "Keep pushing, my armies! We can not lose the Temple of the Nether!" screamed Herobrine. His Zombie Pigmen squealed in rage in response, trying to send back the Endermen's armies.

The world deteriorated again, and I stood in an abandoned street. The thing was, everything looked... different. Nothing looked like blocks, everything was curved and sliding. Fire raged everywhere, except it danced around instead of staying in one position, slowly spreading to different blocks of ground. And the ground was hard like stone, but it looked a lot different. Where was I?

A bunch of people ran by, about seven of them. They all wore some kind of armor, but it was a dark green and looked more like clothing. They all had tinted yellow glasses. As they all ran, they held these odd shaped objects. They were hard to describe, but it didn't look like you would want to be here without a weapon. I assumed they must be something like that, but how could you hit someone with something long and gripped with different lengths breaking out of it?

I decided to follow them. On the back of their clothes was a white word that read SAS, and they sprinted along the road. Suddenly, something whizzed past my ear, but I didn't see anything. It was loud though. One of the men, the leader I assume, shouted to his comrades, "Incoming fire! Get off the street!" The group vaulted into a building on the right through broken windows and an open doorway. The hurried in, and huddled together, brandishing the weapons in front of them.

The leader took out some strange device that was emitting an annoying sound, like a never ending splash or something. He pressed a button on it, and yelled into it. "Damn it, Overlord, where are the Escort Ospreys? We are two blocks from Team Delta, but we need air support. We are taking heavy fire from the target building! Please, tell me something other than static!" I had no idea what any of these words meant. What was fire, the things that were flying past me? Maybe they needed to avoid those, like super-fast arrows.

The noise out of the device continued, until an answer came. "The Escort Osprey has been shot down in the western side of the city. Who is this speaking?"

The man holding the device, which must be letting him communicate with this person named Overlord, looked flustered. "This is the British Special Air Service Team trying to secure Team Delta and Exodus! Who the hell do you think you were talking to?!"

"OK, Captain Burns, we are sending the other four Swedish Spec Ops Teams to your location from the west, they are heading into the city now. Stand by for support," the device spoke. Captain Burns, the leader of the SAS Team, stowed away the device in a belt and barked out orders to his team. "Guys, we need to hold out here for a while. Let's move to the second floor and gun down those damn Anonymous." After a chorus of "Yes, sir!"s, the squad headed up a collapsed wall to a landing on the second floor. I saw no more as the dream faded, and I woke on my bed back in Fort Imperial.

"What the hell was that..." I muttered, stunned by the three phases of the dream. Especially the last one. Was that another Realm that I didn't know about? There were only three, I thought; the Overworld, the Nether, and the Aether. What in the world was that place?

I couldn't ponder my dreams right now, though. The sun had risen, and the crisp morning air brought a cheerful feeling to my head. But only for a second or two. Everything seemed very dim and dark as the group had been halved. It was almost like Fort Imperial's happiness had been sucked right out.

I supposed it had, considering that Anna and Will had died and that Prae and I were subject to the Endermen's army knocking on our doorstep any second now. Things were looking especially grave today. But I took it upon myself to at least take down their old houses so that those blocks could be used as tribute. Prae hadn't exited her house, but instead was lying on her bed. I could see through the window of her house, just staring at the ceiling in disbelief.

For what seemed like the millionth time, I kicked myself, muttering curse words and "Stupid Glowstone." None of that would do any good, I knew, but I had to take my anger out on someone. And that someone happened to be me.

The wood house that now stood before me was Anna's. I stared at the door that was parallel to mine. Normally, in the early morning like this, it would've been majestic, standing out in the brilliant sunlight of nine o' clock. Instead, the house was miserable, another reminder of the lifeless body stranded in the Nether.

I thought for a moment. I guess I should do a prayer, I supposed. Before closing my eyes, I caught a glimpse of the mining building directly next to her house. That's where Will had kept all of his secrets as he was possessed. Just another reminder of our imminent sense of doom.

_Notch,_ I thought, eyes shut tightly because if they were open, I might've cried. _I know Anna will have received her judgement by now, but hopefully she is in the Aether with you and her sister. Her sister meant a lot to her, so her death wasn't exactly untimely in her head. But please, let them stay together. Prae and I won't stop fighting._

Nothing happened. Nothing was supposed to, but it was relevant to make note of that. Or at least, once I opened my eyes, I didn't see the house in front of me. I didn't see the blue skies, or the buildings generally around Fort Imperial. Instead, I saw a woman, once more in that other Realm where the textures of everything were strange, shake her head and push away a diamond ring that I was holding. What the...?

No sooner had I seen this that I was back in the Overworld. It had been a vision of some sorts. I knew that I wasn't an Oracle, so this was odd in a way that I had never imagined before.

Nevertheless, I pulled out my iron axe and began chopping down the front wall. After it was excavated, I looked inside of the room. There was the standard bed with a crafting table next to it. There was a large chest, but when I destroyed that, it turned out that it was empty. The windows took over most of the two walls facing the wild like in all of the other houses. After destroying these, I took about eighteen total pieces of coal out of the furnaces and destroyed those as well. It made me feel bad that I was taking everything, although they weren't doing anything helpful sitting here.

After continuing to take down the walls and the wooden roof, I stood above a bare cobblestone floor. This was all that was left of Anna's house. Sighing, I mined away the cobble and replaced it with some spare dirt. As grass grew up from the ground, another one of the visions overcame me.

This time, I was standing on a pedastal of sorts, overlooking a croud of people in an intersection. There were roadblocks on them, and it seemed that all of the onlookers were waiting for me to do something. Next to me was a large frame of what looked like iron, except it shined in the sunlight. "Everyone, please. Let me announce the greatest invention of this century!" I yelled to the large crowd of people.

Once more, I was back in the grassy plain that was Fort Imperial. What did these visions mean, and why was I able to see them? I shook it off, figuring that it would be explained. Everything was, eventually. You just had to work toward that goal.

As I walked over to Will's house to perform the same operation, Prae opened the door of her house and stepped out. Her long hair was scraggled and her eyes were tinted red, but she tried to hide her distress as she walked up to me. "Hey," she greeted solemnly, raising her hand in a very gloomy response. It seemed that everything that day would be just that; gloomy.

I quickly explained what I was doing to Prae, but I don't think that she was really taking it in. In fact, it was kind of coming out of mouth without me thinking about it. Both of us were really out of it considering the death of Will. I continued the same procedure on Will's house with Prae occasionally smashing a piece of glass or chopping up a block of wood. There was no talking, as a silent agreement passed through us to let everything be.

After I finished taking down the house, I inspected the collections from the furnaces and chests sitting in my toolbelt. Just as I suspected, there was nothing of importance from Will's house; just a few spare blocks of dirt and some saplings. There wasn't going to be anything up here. Remembering Will's last words, I explained to Prae that we would have to go down into the mine.

"Not today, Alex. Just, not today," she replied, staring at the ground. She was so sad, I couldn't stand it. Why had everything fallen apart so fast, and why did it have to be my fault? Prae didn't deserve this, so I brought her in my arms to give her a sense of trust in this time of grief. Her heart beat fast against mine, and all of my feelings evaporated to make sure that Prae knew that she was safe.

We shared a kiss together, breaking the drougt that we had suffered through the period in the Nether when she didn't trust my spawn problem. Though this was out of sadness, it warmed my heart just the same. Together we stood together, enlightening the hellish reality that we were trying to survive with each other.

Another day of putting off what needed to be done, but in a good exchange. The thing, I kept telling myself, was that there was absolutely nothing for us to do. I knew that we had to collect the blaze rods in the Nether, but I sure as hell did not want to head back into that dimension anytime soon. As I walked back to my house, waiting out for another day where Prae and I would virtually repeat the process, another vision came upon me. I was sitting at a table, hands folded on the counter. I seemed to be listening to a song, which was coming from another mechanism emitting a sound, kind of like a jukebox. The lyrics were as follows:

_Is our secret safe tonight  
And are we out of sight  
Will our world come tumbling down?  
Will they find our hiding place  
Is this our last embrace  
Or will the world stop caving in?  
_

As the song headed into an instrumental period, I slammed the table with my hand. "It's too late. She won't make it."

And with that, I fell asleep on my bed back in Fort Imperial. The night would be a long one.

**TPoM**

"RPG!"

The HUMVEE rocked uncontrollably, shaking me in my seat. The rocket had just missed the military car, loaded with a mounted minigun on the top. The force of the explosion still forced a jolt through me, almost making me drop my ACR 6.8. After gripping the edge of the seat of the car, I made sure that everyone was OK.

"Guys, the scene is too hot. You'll have to get to the target on foot! Just get out of the car quick so that I don't get blown to bits," the driver said, shooing us out of the car. I grabbed the assault rifle and aimed a kick at the door, knocking it open with brute force. Scrambling out of the HUMVEE, I checked that my magazine was fully loaded. Long followed me out in that row of the car, while Reynolds and Handforth exited through the third door in the backseat. Once we were all out of the car, it spun around and drove back out of the city to the Resistance camps.

The street was wartorn, with boxes and sandbags spread over it to make cover. There was a high amount of enemy soldiers on the other side, trying to keep the fresh group of reinforcements at bay. I picked one off from my standing position with the ACR, and then crouched behind a pile of sandbags so that I wouldn't get hit. Sergeant Hudson of Team Alpha crouched next to me on my right, with Reynolds on my left. All four remaining Swedish Special Operations Teams were being sent out to extract the target, which included Team Delta themselves. They had been holding their own for the past two days, and secured a good amount of intelligence. But now, after the attack on the Nordbankshuset, Anonymous had sent in a high amount of forces to lock down the city, and hopefully secure Team Delta for hostage or execution. We had sent in a group of ten SAS soldiers from the former British faction, but three were KIA and the others were stranded two blocks south of Delta's position.

"What's the sitrep on the river?" Hudson yelled over the gunfire to me, bringing me back to reality. I leaned over the cover and shot down another soldier before answering him.

"Anonymous has completely reestablished control of Uppsala. It's as if our assault two days ago didn't exist. Their primary forces are now in the west, trying to take us out, but they have lined the borders of the east side and the Fyris. We're going to have to push hard if we want any chance of securing the western side for immediate extraction," I responded. The gunfire from our faction ceased, and it was apparent that we had eliminated the imminent threat. "Check your loadouts before we advance!" ordered a voice, confirming my suspicion. It must have been the leader of Charlie or Echo, which one I did not know.

Amid the pause of action, I checked my equipment like my ally had suggested. I was carrying the ACR in my hands right now, which was equipped with extended magazines for less frequent reloading. I also had a Desert Eagle in my holster, four frags, three flashbangs, my air to ground radio, and of course my standard issue combat knife. Confirming I was set, we vaulted over the cover and continued down the street. I did a quick headcount. There were still sixteen of us, four from each Team. We were making good progress.

And so we advanced along the same street for a while. At some moments we were interrupted by gunfire, at which point we would duck behind cover and take out the threat. It was not until we were only a few more blocks from the river that an enemy helicopter turned from a street corner and began firing at us. It was accompanied by ten or so foot mobiles, but we all got to cover in time.

We were going to need air support, I figured. Taking out my radio, I clicked on the speaker and began to communicate with the Comm Center.

"Overlord, this is Team Bravo. We have a confirmed zero casualties, but are requesting air support. Enemy hind is the current threat," I told them, crouching behind a building's wall that had been knocked over by an explosion, creating a pile of rubble good for cover.

"Team Bravo, we are patching you through to an AC-130 in your airspace. Callsign Frost," my radio told me through static. An AC-130? This mission was going to become very easy.

"What's the status on air support?" someone shouted from my right. Just then, my radio blinked on and Frost's voice came through.

"Bravo, can you identify enemy targets? We have your location, but we need a sitrep on who's the good guys," Frost asked, cuing me to analyze the area.

"Anyone on the intersection or east of it is Anonymous. The helicopter is, too," I responded, hoping for quick support. As if on cue, I large missile flew from the sky and smashed into the helicopter, shaking the ground around us with it's power.

"There's your air support!" yelled what sounded like Handforth. Wasn't that right, or what?

"Hooah," I muttered in agreement as a bunch of 40mm bullets rained from the sky, showering us with debris. Once it stopped, Frost radioed in. "You're clear to move up, but there are a large amount of enemy forces at the Fyris four blocks ahead of you."

After alerting the others, we continued up to the river. There were multiple bridges on the different roads, including one right in front of us. It was loaded with enemies, probably about forty of them. Thank God that we had an AC-130 on our side.

"Frost, we need you to light up the bridge over the Fyris to our direct east," I said into my radio. "Danger close," Frost responded, cuing a hellstorm of missiles and machine gun fire from the sky, taking down most of the Anonymous forces on the bridge in front of us. "All right, we're clear to move up!" I yelled, and I then vaulted over my cover. However, it seemed that some of the men on the bridge had survived, as we began taking fire.

"Contact!" one of my allies shouted. Ducking behind a steel pole that had fallen to the ground, I aimed my ACR and shot at an enemy who dared to prop his head above some cover to get a view of us. The bullets hit him, and he fell backward. "Tango down!"

I switched cover quickly, from the steel pole to an abandoned car. There was much communicating from our side, as we had to eliminate this threat ourselves because the air support would take us out too, considering, how close we were to the enemy. I shot down another soldier, and moved up some more. After a few more minutes, we had cleared the bridge and were heading into the eastern side of the city. "Give us the sitrep, Frost!"

The bridge dropped us into a street that went along the river bank, the streets on the sides blocked off with barbwire. We would be able to pass through without the other bridges opening fire on us. The street opened up to us, and for the first few blocks it appeared free of enemies. I halted the group to wait for Frost's answer.

"You're five blocks from Delta, just keep heading east. At the fifth intersection, you will be engaged from the south and north, be advised. Delta is on the third floor of the building on the north-eastern side of the intersection. They are taking heavy fire from below. The SAS squad is on the south-western building of an intersection two blocks below that. We are not cleared to fire on the buildings in the east as they are too unstable after the strafe run. Good luck, Bravo."

"Thanks, Frost. Keep me posted," I replied, stowing the radio away for now. I started along the abandoned road, clear to move forward. "What's the sitrep, Sarge?" queried Reynolds, jogging along the street next to me.

"Road's clear, but it sounds like we don't have much time to secure the two groups. Plan is we'll split up. Two Teams go for Delta, and the others head down for the SAS guys once they're given the go ahead. We'll have to double-time it if we want the path we cleared to still be open for extraction, though," I replied, vaulting a fallen tree as I loaded another magazine into my ACR.

"Alpha and Bravo, on me. We're going to sprint across the intersection and get to Delta, and from there we'll call for support from the Resistance HUMVEEs for extraction. Charlie and Echo, head up the street on our go. We'll provide cover fire from an elevated position. Just watch the north of the intersection, multiple tangoes are on that side too, even though we aren't going that way," I ordered everyone, and hurried into the intersetion and took cover beside an overturned bus. There were multiple enemies on either side, and I quickly gunned down those on the south to pave the way for Charlie-Echo to make a strike on that street. "Alpha-Bravo, let's get in the building!" Hudson commanded, and the eight of us hurried into the building. The other two squads were waiting in the intersection, engaged with the few enemies on the north side of it.

I scrambled up a set of stairs and walked through a doorway. There was a room there, with two windows on either side of the corner of the building, and it would make a perfect overwatch position. I hailed the others inside, and turned to find a gun to my head.

"Who the hell are you?" a bitter voice choked out at me, the cold barrel of the Desert Eagle against the side of my head.

"Team Alpha-Bravo, we're here for your extraction," I calmly responded, realizing that this must have been one of the Delta operatives. I felt the barrel release it's press against my head, and a hand shook mine.

"Sergeant Richter, I assume? Thank God you're here, I've got two wounded while Green and I won't make it much longer without food. Sergeant Derco, at your service," the man introduced himself. The others walked into the room, and I immediately got down to work.

"Long, you take one of the wounded. Reynolds and Handforth, take out the enemies north of Charlie-Echo so that they can move up. I'm establishing radio contact with them now. Charlie-Echo, you're good to move up!" I commanded, the last sentence into my radio after gunfire from next to me confirmed the northern threat had been vanquished. Seizing the opportunity, I radioed Overlord to request HUMVEE transports to get us out of here once we had received the SAS squad.

"Bravo, each HUMVEE can take five you, as one of the spots is the driver and one is the minigun operator. How many do you need?" my radio responded.

I did the quick calculation in my head. "Six of 'em, and make it quick! I don't want to get caught here without support!"

"Roger that, Bravo. The convoy are on their way through the clear path to your location, ETA three minutes."

As Charlie-Echo fought off some enemies at the intersection two blocks away, I prayed that the convoy would make it here in time. As they entered the building, my radio buzzed. "We've secured the SAS, all three confirmed KIAs, seven alive." It was Charlie-Echo. We were all set to go. "You guys have more intel?" I asked Sergeant Derco, the head of Delta. He nodded.

After heading downstairs, we waited for the HUMVEEs to get here. A trail of dust was thundering toward us in the distance. "It's the convoy, get ready!" I yelled. As the six pulled up, I ordered three of them to head down to the other building. As I loaded myself into one of them with Derco and the rest of Bravo, my radio sounded in. "Anonymous airstrike incoming, get out of there!"

It was too late, though. As we hooked up and started pulling away, the world around us lit up with fire and dust. An explosion so loud my eardrums felt like they had cracked filled the air. The building we had come out of was toppling over. I had forgotten what Frost had said about the buildings being too unstable. I looked back from the front seat as the building fell on top of us.

The world crumbled around, the car exploding under pressure. I blacked out.

** And so a cliffhanger is upon us! How peculiar. As an insert, I'm sorry for the heroes section being kind of rushed. There wasn't much for me to write about for them. Fear no more, this will be the last time for a while that that will happen!**

** What will Prae and Alex do with the collectibles from Will's secret room? How will the new OCs fit into the plot-line? And what happened to Mr. Black Op? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	19. A Visit from Notch

** Hello once again, faithful readers!**

** I would like to thank FMF for my recognition of being her beta, along with Mellifluousness. It's an honor, and as a small spoiler for all of you, me and her are beginning to shape up a joint project. It's a secret for now, I guess, but if we follow through you'll see it on the sight eventually!**

** I also forgot to give credit to the song lyrics in the previous chapter from part of Alex's vision. Those lyrics are from the song _Resistance_ by Muse. It's just a bad pun that the name of the song is Resistance, considering that that is the friendly faction in the Earth part of the story. Some shocking new evidence about Earth shall be found this chapter, by the way.**

** And alas, we finally know more about what happened to Herobrine! He's not dead, everyone! Don't worry!**

** OK, so four people have already asked me if Prae is going to die. I only gave out the answer to one of those people because he/she gave me a ton of spoilers to her story. If you want to ask me, DON'T! I'm not giving away that intelligence to anyone else. (And if you put two and two together, it's pretty obvious who that someone is.)**

** My thoughts on the latest Adventure Time: I'm going to make this a recurring segment. So, my thoughts: OMGOMGOMG Jake and Lady Rainicorn are having puppies! OMGOMG**

** So, enough with the nonsense. It's time for the review responses!**

**Shayor****: Correction: I borrowed them during Teen Living, and the substitute started yelling at Sebastian because he was playing games on his computer. Big surprise. And I changed what I messed up. Thanks for the heads up!**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: I'm so evil to Herobrine. :D**

**Kyanite Archer****: I keep telling everyone: nothing special in that room except what I explained from Will's point of view. Everyone expects more, more, MORE!**

**Theshanepig****: Mr. Black Op will be back. I didn't realize my story was so bad it made you cry. Again.**

**Night wl****: The glasses are pretty sweet looking. Thanks!**

**FullMoonFlygon****: Danka Shoen! Oh wait, you're old and ugly now. Just kidding. I just thought, if that picture you sent was supposed to be me, and you said he's so hot after I said I actually had blond hair, isn't that implying that you think that I'm hot? I laugh, danka shoen. Tango down is military slang for enemy dead. Other words include contact, and some others. I don't feel like looking them up. And thanks for the opportunity to beta!**

**SPACEMAN NEXUS****: I hope that it will still be an awesome story. I hope so!**

**Exb756****: He won't be gone forever, because I agree with you; it is a very interesting part of the story that is unique to the story. I don't mean to be cocky, but that's just different from the rest of the stories on the site.**

**PowderCoated****: Thanks, I'm always excited when someone is happy with my story. This is actually the first story that I'm ever close to finishing, so don't be discouraged! I'm twelve, and I've been writing longer stories since I was six. So it takes a lot of time to get better at it. I find that this is the first one where I'm actually getting a following while I'm writing, which helps motivate me to write more. So if you want a better motivation, try posting on this site!**

**NethanielShade****: Yeah, I'll go check it out sometime! Not right now, because I've got to go to football practice, but look for a review eventually.**

** So, without further ado, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 19**

**A Visit From Notch**

All I could see was black, just an endless oblivion. Slowly, I began to see debris, but I couldn't make anything out as my head was spinning. My head hurt, and my vision was disoriented. I groaned in pain. My left leg was trapped under something, though I couldn't see what. Either way, the pain of it was like fire.

I finally cleared my head and looked around me. I was empty handed, and my gloves had burned through from sparks. The car looked like it had overturned on it's side, and I was sitting on broken glass from the window of a door. The car was obliterated, and Long was lying against the floor, a wall on my left, dead. "Oh, no," I muttered.

Fatigue rushed through my head as I came to my senses. I remembered the building coming down on top of our car. It must have smashed us, but a somehow survived, probably through a break in the debris. Long was KIA next to me, and I feared for the others.

Crouching down, I poked my head through a lopsided opening to the row of people in front of us. The driver of the HUMVEE was still strapped in to his seat, hanging over the ground. Sergeant Derco of Delta lay dead underneath him, his ragdoll having fallen through the force of the impact. I turned and looked in the back. Reynolds and Handforth were in virtually the same position. I checked their pulses. Not a single beat.

"Damn..." There wasn't anything I could do for them now. Facing my leg, I looked it over. A steel cable of debris was holding it down, and the pressure wasn't exactly comfortable. I gripped the bar and lifted it up, carefully sliding my foot out from underneath it. Once I was free, I let go of the iron cable, causing it to slam against the metal door of the HUMVEE. I cringed, knowing that it wasn't wise to make a lot of noise in an area so quiet that might be being occupied by enemies.

Now free to move, I slipped my knife out from my combat boot's pocket. If I didn't have access to a gun, then a melee weapon was apparently the best I could do right now. If I found an Anonymous soldier, I would take them out and steal the gun that they most likely would be carrying. First, I needed a way out of the destroyed car.

The debris of the building was basically a labyrinth of hallways, with supports causing large ceilings or possibly cave-ins in the middle of a room. Knowing the danger, I would have to be careful as I got out of the car. I scoured the walls around me, looking for a possible way out. On my left was the ceiling, and on my right was the floor of the car. The bottom door was jammed against debris filled street, so the only way out was up.

I pressed my hand against the top door, which was unlocked. I noticed that the hinge on one side was severed. I pressed up against the door, and it slowly lifted up on an edge. As it shifted to a different angle, it's center of gravity changed, and slammed to the side. Another loud crash followed, and I climbed up over the car and stumbled onto the ground.

This happened to be a large cavern of debris, the destroyed building making weird angles over everything. I held my knife in front of me, careful and vigilant of any Anonymous forces. Suddenly, my radio began buzzing in my back pocket. I had completely forgotten about it.

"All units stationed in the killzone, please tune in. We are aborting the mission, Exodus is presumed KIA. If you are alive, make your way to the bridge over the Fyris that has been cleared out. Watch for friendlies and hostiles. Good luck, if you're alive..." The message abruptly ended there. I pulled out my compass. The hall I was in was facing west, so I would have to continue this way.

I hurried into a small opening, and crouched down through a pathway. At the end were two soldiers, both Anonymous. They couldn't see me as my cover was only a crawlspace, although where they were standing widened into a larger room. I listened to what they were saying from my cover.

"Remember; everyone's hostile unless they're carrying our weapons. We need to pick off all the survivors we can as they're trying to make it to the bridge. We need to give our guys some support," one of the men said in a thick New England accent. Anonymous came from all over; many of them were American. That's how they began the chemical attacks that started the war, because they had so many men spread across the entire world.

"Yes. I'll go cover the ledge up there, I heard movement coming from that area. You stay here and make sure no one get's here. Deal?" the other one responded in a Russian tongue, and I watched as he hurried about twenty paces into the distance, climbed over a ledge of debris about a yard and a half tall, and hurried off into the wild until I could see him no more.

It was now or never for me to take out the man with the Boston accent. He had his back turned, and I stayed crouched in the tunnel until he was fully focused on the area in front of him. From there, I swiftly punched his right ankle, very hardly. The man let out a low grunt, and slipped over onto the ground. When he came into view, I dug my knife into his neck, making a quick but not quite clean kill.

He stopped breathing after a few moments, with my knife cutting off his circulation and stopping his air flow in a matter of seconds. I pulled my combat knife back out, and pushed the soldier's head off of me and back onto the ground in front. I climbed out from the tunnel and into the larger room, stowing my knife back in my boot, and lifted up his weapon. An AK74U, a sub-machine gun version of the famous assault rifle. I picked up the six extra magazines off the soldiers belt and hooked them onto mine. They each carried thirty bullets, so that gave me 210.

Now that I was out in the open, I dragged the dead soldier's body into the hidden tunnel so that it wouldn't be as obvious that someone had killed him. It wouldn't be a problem for me, except that I heard gunshots from over the ledge.

Someone from the Resistance was up there, and the Russian Anonymous soldier had either killed him or been killed. I prayed it was the latter. I walked over to the ledge, my head above the floor of the ground above me. There was a man scouring over the dead body of the Russian man, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It was a friendly. I started to lift my right leg up, but quickly crippled back down, cursing a little too loudly. I could not put weight on my left leg without experiencing bad pain.

That was the last thing on my mind as the soldier pointed his gun, an AK47, at my head. I stumbled back in surprise and fell on my butt because of my bad leg. "Tell me if you're Resistance or I'll shoot," he ordered, finger held against the trigger.

I raised my hands to indicate that I was friendly, my gun at my side. "Sergeant Richter, Spec Ops Team Bravo," I told him, quick to the point. After looking me over, he walked to the ledge and held out his hand to lift me up off of the ground. I took his arm and scrambled up over the ledge, gripping my gun in my other hand so that I wouldn't lose it. As I reclaimed my footing, I studied his face and realized it was Hudson from Team Alpha.

"You really scared me back there, Hudson," I told him, gripping the AK74U in my hands.

"The entire building is unstable on top of us and you're worried about me pointing a gun at you? Jesus, Richter, your morals are screwed up," Hudson joked. His eyes caught my leg, which I wasn't putting any weight on. "What's wrong with you're ankle?"

I cringed at the thought of it. "It got caught under a heap-load of debris. It's fine now, but I'll want it checked out once we get back to camp," I answered.

"_If_ we get back to camp," replied Hudson. I rolled my eyes.

"So I assume that you heard the radio message?" he asked, now all business like usual.

I nodded. "Unfortunately, I'm the only one from my HUMVEE around to hear it," I acknowledged bitterly. Waves of memories suddenly washed over me. I remembered Handforth's first day with the group, when we had made fun of him for his slow run in the practice course. I remembered Long and all of his stupid jokes he would tell ironically in the field. And I remembered Reynolds, and the friendship we had built together. It was still crazy that this had happened. I would have to move on without them.

Hudson appeared to be sharing the same grief, shaking his head at the ground in disbelief. "It was only me and Ramirez in my car, plus the driver. He was my right-hand man..."

It suddenly snapped inside how clear it was. "We have to get out of here, but we have to use the intel we collected before to strike a blow. A large one, for Reynolds. And Handforth, and Long."

"And Ramirez, Mason, and Williams."

Right there, the two of us secured a bond. But the making of a friendship would have to wait. It was safe to say that we were a bit preoccupied. "We're going to have to continue west through this wreckage," I suggested, starting to walk off into another hallway.

"We should be near the end of the main pile of debris, considering that the building fell directly this way and nothing was smashed in the way, considering we're walking on what used to be a street," Hudson responded. I nodded in agreement and ducked under a desk that was hanging from the ceiling, it's legs welded into crushed floors and walls that made what looked like a rocky cement.

Sure enough, after only a few more minutes of walking, we reached an archway that led into the street. I stepped out into the fresh air, and took in the late evening breeze. The setting sun was casting an orange glow over the sky, and I really did not want to be making my way to the camp at night. "Let's go, it's only two blocks to the bridge!" I shouted to Hudson. I began jogging along the street, not going full speed because of my bad leg.

Once we reached the intersection bordering the bridge, a British man walked up with a G63C trained on us. "Who are you, and what do you want?"

"Stop being hostile, one, and two, we're what's left of the Spec Ops Teams. At least, as far as we know," Hudson responded hurriedly, turned around briefly to check for enemies, and then said to the officer's face, "Now get out of the way! He's injured!"

I raised an eyebrow at that comment. "I'm not injured. My leg just... hurts..."

Nevertheless, the officer ushered us into the LZ, giving me a code to input in my radio so that I could get the radio feed for the bridge's main operators. I plugged in the numbers, 9426, and listened to the radio as I sat on a crate of empty ammo casings. "Extraction for injured and all others that we can fit on six AH-6s will be here in five minutes on a strafe run coming from the west. All others will be evacuated in close to ten. Be advised, there are no more active heat signatures in the debris of the enemy airstrike east of the river. All units that survived are all at the bridge." That was all good to know. There wasn't that much incoming fire coming from the other bridges, just the occasional sniper who thought he might break through the thick wires on the sides that missed by a mile every time. Even on the west, the side that about ten Resistance soldiers were defending, there was only a few enemies that dared to make a rush against us.

There were about forty people at the evac site, and that was going to be it. If Hudson thought that I was injured, he had a thing or two to be taught. One man laying on a stretcher around ten yards from me had his knee bent to the inside, at an angle that I surely never wanted to experience. I cringed at the pain that he was sure to be suffering.

With nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs, I turned the AK74U over for examination by an officer who specialized in equipment. His name was Justin Slade, and he was a Staff Sergeant. Maybe he would be able to see if there was any technological advance in the weapon.

Just as I suspected, there was absolutely nothing that set it apart. It seemed that the Mojang Disaster Curse was living on. Sitting back down next to Hudson, I told him what was hardly news, but just another reminder of the world we lived in.

Hudson seemed to swallow this information with no effect. Shrugging, he carelessly waved his hand, saying "Whatever. This curse obviously isn't fake, but what are we going to do about it?"

I thought. If Anonymous was going to try and take the building with the portal inside, then we were going to have to do something. Maybe they were trying to break the curse somehow. All the while, though, I remembered Notch's warning. If they tried to use the portal, or maybe even destroy it, who knows what would happen to it?

"You're one of the guys who went in to investigate, right? Everyone thinks you're crazy, talking about Notch. But honestly, I sort of believe you. I'll have to see proof, but the best of the best don't just randomly go insane," Hudson told me. As the AH-6 gunfire became audible in the distance, I stood up. I figured it was best not to answer to that. I don't think I was supposed to, anyway. As one of the helicopters touched down in front of me, I boarded on the right side with Hudson on my side.

Maybe, if I could somehow prove to him Notch existed still, then he would be on my side. But, I realized, I would have to make a case so that General Walker would permit me to go into an area where Anonymous had occupied, and where there apparently was nothing notable there if I wanted to keep the portal untouched.

It seemed that it would just be another day of fighting when that day came. As I was lifted into the cool evening air, I thought about how that was all war really was in the first place.

**TPoM**

I once again had a dream where I was animate, able to move around as an actual figure. The floors were marble white, and the windows were a very shiny type of glass. It appeared that I was in a castle of some sort. I stared at the hallway in front of me, which seemed to be endless until a large doorway at the end. Mesmerized, it startled me when a hand touched my shoulder.

"Hello, Alex! I've been dying to meet you! But, unfortunately, this isn't my dream. Notch would like to see you in that room down there," the man said, staring into my eyes with great pleasure. He had bright blue eyes, and was wearing long black pants with a red sleeveless coat. He had messy brown hair and a brown mustache that curled down around his mouth to a scraggly beard. The most startling part of him was the long white wings that floated out of his back.

"And, who are you, exactly?" I stuttered, still surprised by this man.

He chuckled slowly, and stroked his mustache furtively. "Why, the great Lewis! Most commonly known, however, as Xephos the Spaceman!" It seemed a great pleasure to him to announce this, and my mouth formed a small 'o' of recognition. Of course it was Xephos, the leader of the Yogscast. With the wings on his back, he must be an angel, which meant that I was in the Aether.

"How are you able to see me, and not just Notch if he's the subject of the dream?" I asked. Before, in the other dreams that Herobrine would summon to me, no other life forms would be able to take notice to me. Now, if Notch wanted to talk to me, wouldn't it have to be three different people?

"Please, let's start walking. I'll explain," Xephos replied, turning to begin strutting down the long hallway. I followed at a good pace.

"The way that Herobrine and Notch are able to communicate with you through dreams is something called a telepathic link. The host of the dream, which is the one that establishes it, has to use a lot of energy. So it isn't that hard with two people. But he's afraid that the Endermen are doing some things he thought they wouldn't be able to, so now he is using three people in his dreams. I'm the guard, or something, to make sure that they don't mess up the link. But with three people, it's harder for him," Xephos explained. It was such a long speech that when he finished, we had reached the large doors. "Well, I hope your meeting goes well. Hopefully Honeydew didn't load the building with TNT again."

At this he turned and watched the hallway to make sure that no one was coming through it. With a raised eyebrow at this last comment, I pushed open the door into the room where Notch was apparently waiting for me.

Inside was a large room, the floor a brightly colored wool pattern, and the walls a very lightly textured stone that I had to assume came from the Aether. Holystone, probably. There were some seats spread throughout the room, and Notch was sitting in a chair facing me. He raised a hand in greeting. "Alex, please sit," he greeted, waving his hand toward a chair opposite him.

I slowly walked over, in awe that Notch was here in front of me. It startled me that he was treating me like an old friend, whereas he was the Lord of Minecraftia and I was just another kid from Imperial Plains. Sitting on the plush red seat, I remembered that I was the Herald of Survivors. If Notch wasn't able to protect me and make sure that I was doing what I needed to, then his entire world would be taken over. For a moment, I almost felt like I was being used.

Of course, I knew that wasn't true. If he needed to use me, then he would be very harsh with what he needed. Instead, this was the first I had heard of him. And he didn't look very good. His mouth was in a thin line, and his eyes were centered on me, looking grave and wistful. Xephos had said that the link drained his energy, but he looked more sad than tired.

"Alex, there's something I need to tell you. You're in danger. I know that you have been for a long time now, and that this isn't new. But now more than ever, you need to make sure that you are safe," he began. I did know that I was in danger, and it had something to do with the Enderman's army.

My field of vision rippled for a second, and suddenly I was standing in a building, watching as the town square of Imperial Plains was being overrun by the armies. This was my memory, and that was the force that would be coming for just two people. It faded, and I was back with Notch. This prompted a question.

"Um, should I call you Notch, sir?" I asked nervously, and he nodded slowly. I continued with my actual question. "These visions, I'm being fully embraced by them. Do you know what they are?" I queried, thinking about the crowd of people, and the song being played on that weird jukebox.

He thought deeply for a moment. "These visions are part of my memory. When I'm establishing the link, if it is more than two people in the link, it deals a lot of pressure on me. I assume that Xephos already told you this?" he explained, and I nodded in response.

"Yes," he continued. "With that amount of pressure, my mind becomes, what's the right word for it... Unstable. When it is unstable, and we are beginning to share a link, my memories flow through the link. So the two others besides the host were able to see some of my memories. I'm guessing that these are the visions that you are talking about."

So these were his memories. "If those are your memories, then why did everything look so, different?" I questioned.

Notch seemed taken aback. "Different? How?"

I explained to him that everything was not blocky. "It seemed like everything was smoother, or something. And I also saw a vision of something in a dream last night, these men fighting. But I didn't have a body, it wasn't you. What was that?"

Notch sat across from me, his mouth in a perfect loop. "You are seeing my memories from Earth? And you are able to see the war going on there in real time? Fascinating. The first part I can explain, but the latter..."

I made something between a confused face and a smirk. Notch seemed to be very distant right now. "If you can explain it, can you? I don't know about Earth, or a war, what are these things? And why does it involve me, because I'm sure that it does somehow!" I asked him, getting irritated.

"Earth is a different Realm, like the Nether or the Aether, where we are now. But what memories are you seeing?"

I rethought all the visions that I had had the day prior. "Well, there was a crowd of people, and a woman with a ring, no, rejecting it. And a song, and you said something," I explained but Notch cut me off.

"You can see Emily? I... Let's talk about why I brought you here, shall we?" Notch responded, his face completely amazed at whatever I was apparently able to do.

But no, we shouldn't do that, I thought. Maybe I couldn't talk about Emily, but I still had more questions for him. "Why is there a war on Earth? What happened to Herobrine? Why did I see Imperial Plains again just now?"

"Enough, Alex. I'll explain everything. Just not now," Notch scolded, his eyes burning with a quiet rage. "Some things you are better off not knowing until later. The time will come for everything. You must learn to accept that those times come when they present themselves, and not when you want to know something about the First Realm!" he rambled, the last couple words in a short yell. I recoiled. Why was he being so hostile? Apparently a lot of what I was telling him was not supposed to happen.

"All right, then why do you need to visit me?" I queried, my voice soft to try and calm him back down. I didn't want Notch, of all people, to be pissed off at me.

"Well, you do know that the Endermens' armies will be coming to attack you and Prae soon, correct?" he asked, mostly a rhetorical question but I nodded to confirm that he was right. "You two will have to begin to work on adding to your numbers. There will be more people coming to assist you when you wake. One of them you've already met."

"Jessica?" I suggested, remembering Prae's childhood friend as someone I definitely wanted as an ally if an army of mobs were going to be charging our houses.

"Yes, along with five others. I believe that Jessica being one of them will make sure that Prae will be excited to become their allies. She does seem to be a bit skeptical of others when she first meets them, yes?" Notch asked, and I nodded slowly. I didn't know if that was a compliment to her or not, but my face reddened when he added that "Either way, you've certainly picked a good love interest."

"Oh, it's not like that, it's just, um," I struggled, but Notch waved the comment away playfully. Talking to me seemed to cheer him out of his troubled mood.

"There are other concerns. You must know that Herobrine is in grave danger. I fear that he has lost the Temple of the Nether to the Endermen. I do not know what horrors they are inflicting upon him, but when you have the chance, I would be forever grateful if you were able to save him. It pains me to say that it is not exactly a priority, but it unfortunately isn't. But you do need to go to the Nether and acquire six blaze rods, still. So that does open up another objective in the Nether."

I thought this over. "I was hoping that Will's secret room might hold some that he had taken once he was inflicted by the Endermen. But, I guess not, right?"

Notch shook his head warily. "One of your new affiliates is a particular expert with potions, so she might be able to help you obtain them easily."

So that was that. I had to meet up with these people, fight off whatever armies were coming, and then save Herobrine in the Nether while I obtained six blaze rods with Prae, Jessica, and the five others who I didn't know yet. I still had a question to ask.

"Notch, you don't have to tell me, but are Anna and Will around in the Aether?" I queried. I wanted to see that they had passed judgement as living good lives.

Notch chuckled at this thought. "Yes, they both have passed judgement. Will is a guardian of a Silver Dungeon, and Anna is particlarly good with the Zephyrs. The moment she picked up a Cloud Staff, they all seemed to love her. But I am afraid that you must go now, Alex. Your new friends draw closer."

All in all, it had been a very insightful conversation. "Thanks, I guess, for all the information."

The god smiled at me from his chair across from me, and reached into his pocket to pull out a small ring. It was identical to the one I had seen in my vision from before. "Not a problem, Alex. To break the link, the host must feed the pressure of the link into an object close to him or her. Imaginary, of course, never the real thing. And since all the pressure is contorted in one small object, all you have to do is destroy it."

Notch snapped his fingers, and my eyes followed the diamond ring as it floated right up to me. "Wake up, Alex," he grinned, and snapped his fingers again. This time, the ring exploded into flames and the dream melted away. The last thing I could see of Notch was his hand waving at me once again, and the world slowly dematerialized in front of me.

**And so we now learn that Alex can oddly see parts of Earth. But for some reason, Notch won't tell him about Earth. We also learn about the OCs. That's right, contest is closed everyone! I'm sorry, and if you won, you have probably gotten a letter of notification from me. So huzzah!**

** Will the Original Characters help the team, or will they hinder them with completely dimwitted pigs? Will Herobrine be OK, and will the team be able to save him? And what is the ****significance of Notch's memory of the girl named Emily? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	20. Herald of Survivors

** Hello once again, faithful readers!**

** What awaits you today is a freakishly long chapter that I am amazed is coming out today and not a week from today. It seemed that I needed to work on constantly, and became obsessed with writing with the new characters!**

** Speaking of new characters, I would like to announce the winners of the OC contest publicly! Here are the winners: FullMoonFlygon with both Khalida Glass and Remington Forge! Sea of Fire with Aria! Kyanite Archer with Adam Woodplank! And last but not least, ArtisticDeaths with Skyler Spade! These characters stood out, and I'm sorry to all of you who did not win. This has been the last OC contest of TPoM, so NO MOAR SUBMISSIONS!**

** Also, as you probably noticed, TPoM has a brilliant new cover designed by none other than FullMoonFlygon! It is so freakishly amazing, and it is able to be viewed in a larger and more detailed form on either my or her dA page. So go check that out, and please give FMF a warm round of applause for this stunning piece of art.**

** All right guys, we are one chapter away from being in the elite, prestigious group of stories with more than 100,000 words! There's only one in the Minecraft category right now, and it's a remake of the Yogscast Shadow of Israphel series. I haven't read it, but I'm sure it's cool. But we're about to make it there, folks! Let's do this!**

** Before the review responses, a word from me: go listen to In The End! It's an awesome song by Anthrax, and it's not thrash metal like what the usually compose. Not only has it got a funny pun for this story as the song title, but the lyrics actually make sense. So it is now the official song of TPoM! Woohoo!**

** And now, it's time for the review responses!**

**Exb756****: Adventure Time is so cool! The new episode is tonight too, so hooray! And about the AK74U, we have had an extended conversation about that since the release of this chapter. And it didn't feel right when I was writing it, either. Just kind of, odd, you know? I guess it was supposed to be like devastation or something, considering that a building had just killed virtually all of the Spec Ops Teams. So I don't know...**

**Night wl****: I know he's dead in real life, but he was brought back to life through Minecraft when it became real!... Somehow.**

**Sea of Fire****: Hopefully you actually read the Notch/Alex part, because there's some pretty important stuff in there. But yes, I'm making an effort to minimize the Black Ops. So huzzah! Also, I meant the Chapter 20 in my counts. I have a prologue, but on the website that counts as an actual chapter for some reason. So yes.**

**PigeonFligher****: Go Yogscast! Their gameplay with the Wither is so hilarious!**

**NotoriousBMX****: Thanks for your support! It really is a special feeling to be able to write your own story. So that's cool, and I'll deffs check out your story. I don't know if it is or not, but I will read it when it's out. I guess.**

**FullMoonFlygon****: Dream on! I will most certainly do that. :P But anyways, I did fix the typo, and I apologize for being a terrible person. And I have plenty of knightly phrases, thank you very much. And WHAT! We must kill your stomach!**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: Well, I'm glad to hear that you punch the air when you read my story. … O_o But yes, Emily is very interesting...**

**Kierany9****: Fear not, my friend! After three months of strife, I have finally found out how to use linebreaks! I had a really cool one before, but it would fade from the website because it used something to do with links. So now it's just TPoM. Hopefully this helps.**

**SPACEMAN NEXUS****: I can't wait, too! Oh.**

**NethanielShade****: I read the first half or so, but didn't get the opportunity to write a review. So shame on me, I suppose.**

**Mayosoul****: I am posting more right now! Oh.**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 20**

**Herald of Survivors**

I sat up in my bed, the heat of the flaming ring still apparent on my nose. I touched the skin where the heat had been most effective. It was cold as ice to coincide with the temperature of reality. I came to the conclusion that links were awfully strange. And yet, I had learned a lot through the dream that Notch had summoned me into. Like everything in my life through the past two weeks, anything that answered questions only created more.

For example, in the very brief answer of what the visions from the day before were, I was left asking who Emily was. I assumed that it was the girl turning away the ring, like I was giving it to her but was rejected. I also guessed that when Notch had said something about her not making it, he was talking about her. There was also the possibility of Herobrine not surviving whatever he was going through. I was worried, especially after everything he had shown that I needed to do.

Gavin snored lightly next to me. I pulled a piece of rotten flesh off of my belt and pushed it under his nose. The wolf sniffed, perked up it's ears, and suddenly was mauling the piece of meat like he had been awake all morning. I smiled at his enthusiasm. I had to put behind the deaths of Anna and Will. There was still a war to fight, and I figured that the arrival of Jessica might help cheer up Prae.

I stood from my bed, stretching. The moon was still hanging above the horizon, probably allowing me another hour before the sun rose and Prae was more likely to get up. As I pushed open my door, Gavin brushed through my legs and scurried out into the fields after a rogue skeleton that had made the mistake of wandering too close to Fort Imperial. For a moment, I worried that it wasn't rogue and it was a scout for the Endermen, but the skull of it was unmarked. A few seconds after that, the skull was completely demolished due to the wolf going after it. I had forgotten for a second that wolves were something of a fan of bones.

Shutting the wooden door to my house behind me, I crossed across the flowing grass and over to the common room. On either side of the entrance to the building were the graves of Will and Anna. Now that I knew that they were in the Aether safely, I was ready to put them behind me. I just wished that Prae would be able to do the same.

As I swiftly entered the common room, I imagined what it must be like in the Aether. I had obviously just been there, but that was only the Temple. The wild up there must have been amazing, with all sorts of interesting creatures. Maybe I would be able to travel up there for real someday.

Leaning against the stone table, I heard a small gurgling noise. My thoughts of the Aether were interrupted by some unwanted intruders. It was a good thing that we had built the Nether portal underground and sealed off, because if a Zombie Pigman had been in the room with me right now, I would have been particularly startled. Considering that I didn't want them to be under me at this time of the night, I opened the trapdoor, readied Monarch, and climbed down the ladder.

Sure enough, in the dimly lit room were two Zombie Pigmen, both of them mulling around with unmarked golden swords. I was comforted that they weren't Enderman controlled. At this point, I had to be skeptical of every mob in the entire world. If a human could be controlled, then I definitely couldn't trust a creeper to not only blow me up, but blow me up with a purpose.

"Hello, Zombie Pigmen. I would be a little appreciative of you guys if you just stepped back in that portal over there," I greeted them, pointing Monarch toward the purple substance in the wall.

There was no response except for a small grunt from the one on the left. I suspected that this had nothing to do with my request. Apparently they hadn't heard me. "That thing over there, do you see it? If you could just walk in there and leave this peaceful town that needs none of your foulness."

There was still no response, and I figured at this moment that I was better off that they couldn't understand me. That last remark might not have gone over well with a ruthless, sword carrying zombie. It looked like I would have to get rid of them the hard way.

"You asked for it," I muttered, and immediately slashed one across the neck. It was completely unsuspecting, and the head fell to the ground without the body. The other Zombie Pigman turned to me and raised it's sword, almost, almost unaware of it's decapitated partner. Obviously it wouldn't go without a fight.

Monarch was barely stained from the previous decapitation, so I shifted it toward the portal. "Please? So I don't have to kill you?" My counterpart made a squeal of a battle cry, and swung it's golden sword at my arm. I easily side-stepped, and jabbed the diamond sword right into the undead swine's face. "Scree-oo!" it yelled painfully, clutching its half-corroded face. I pulled Monarch out of the skull of my attacker in a way that looked quite unpleasant, and slashed the attacker across the chest to hopefully cut off whatever blood flow zombies had. The Zombie Pigman fell to the ground dead, leaving not only a piece of rotten flesh for me, but a shiny golden helmet.

Picking up the piece of armor, I examined it carefully. It wasn't damaged at all, a clean part of a golden set of armor. I personally preferred the iron set that I currently had on right now. After kicking the dead bodies into the portal where they would be in a more proper resting place, I climbed back up the ladder into the common room. After shutting the trapdoor, I walked out into the fading moonlight and scratched Gavin behind the ears, who had been waiting for me to come up to him. The golden helmet in my hand would be a gift for Prae, I figured. It would help her get along after the deaths, maybe inspire her to move forward better. Why was I all of a sudden so worried about Prae?

My musings were interrupted by a chorus of voices coming from the woods, venturing toward us. Oh, splendid. The helpers that Notch had promised. I tried very hard to follow the conversation that ensued. I don't think that I did a very good job. After all, I couldn't see who was talking since they were all still in the woods, hidden in the shadows.

"Look, it's light! We finally found a village! Maybe they'll have an enchantment table, and a brewing stand so I can make us some potions! I could go for a Potion of Fire Resistance right now, those taste absolutely _delicious_," exclaimed a feminine voice excitedly, almost like she was resisting the urge to giggle the entire time.

"Heads up, Loopy. Odds are that the people there wouldn't let you touch anything or you'll curse it. Besides, it's probably another mob camp. Why are those freaks getting so much smarter all of a sudden?" retorted the voice of an older guy. It seemed that he was making fun of the person who had talked before.

"The smarter the mobs become, the higher I shall raise my skills to expel them! Especially for you, lovely," announced a louder person, probably a man who was full of himself. And did he just call someone lovely? Nevertheless, there was a small giggle from what must have been the girl he was talking to.

"Knock it off, Remington. If you're going to constantly be saving us, I'd be on your guard. I'm not exactly a fan of mob camps after the last one we ran into," replied another voice, this one older and masculine.

"I hope that they have real food. I'm so tired of drinking spare bottles of water and eating bread. For Notch's sake, if they don't, I'm blaming Skyler for not letting us stop an harvest apples from the trees in that grove," followed a younger voice. This one seemed familiar, but it wasn't Jessica's...

"Hey! There was a skeleton on our tail!" protested the voice from just before, probably a guy named Skyler.

"Guys, let's just see if it's a mob camp first. If it's not, maybe we can join up with these people," commanded a feminine voice. This was the voice of Jessica.

"Who made you in charge?" answered the guy who had called the first girl Loopy.

"Adam, may I remind you of our agreement after I deliberately risked my life just so you could get out of Magnam Civitatem alive?" responded Jessica. There was no response from the guy named Adam.

"Hey, look through the window! It's glowstone! It can't be a mob camp if they have glowstone in one of their houses!" exclaimed the voice that I recognized. Why was it so familiar? Either way, it seemed that they had found my house. So that meant they were about to notice me.

As if on cue, the guy named Remington announced my existence. "Everyone, look! Another Minecraftian! Hello there, sire! How are you doing on the morrow?" I could see the group of people, and sure enough, they were headed by Jessica Sandstone and the guy talking to me right now.

Jessica looked just the same, as she had when I had first met her back in Magnam Civitatem. Her long black hair slid down her shoulders, topping off her gray eyes and thin mouth. She still was wearing the Magnam Civitatem Fortifier uniform, white swirls like Prae's visible on her arms.

Remington, I assumed, stood next to her, on her left. He was wearing completely iron armor, but the armor exposed his arms, which were covered with swirls like Jessica's, but red. His eyes were a dark navy blue, and his arms were thin, but all the while muscular. It seemed that with his medieval talk, he was also a medieval warrior, his armor sporting a variety of scratches and cuts that probably would've hurt him had he not been wearing the iron armor. He was also holding a long diamond broadsword at his side, which was not quite touching the ground, but hovering just above it.

A girl stood to the left of Remington, and she was clearly the oddest of the bunch. Her long silver hair was braided in many positions by small beads. It would have been straight, but the beads made her hair fly all over the place. She had bright green eyes behind round black glasses, and was holding a bottle of water in her hand. Her long white blouse was covered in more beads, and a skirt hung over legs, made of a number of different wools and fabrics.

On Jessica's right was a taller man, who had dirty blond hair that hung over his forehead, almost obscuring his hazel eyes. He too had the long swirls on his arms, though his were green. The swirls were pretty much the only visible part of his arms, which were mostly covered by a dark gray tunic, held in place by a strip of white wool around his waist. The tunic ended midway down his leg below the knee, and floated above white breeches and squarish leather boots. He held an iron pick at his side, which dragged across the ground as he walked, as if he wished he wasn't holding it.

To the right of this man was a slightly shorter one, but it was clear that he was still older than the majority of the group. He had white hair that was pulled over to the left, and the tips of the strands of hair were coated in dark red blood, probably from slaying mobs. His eyes were red, with yellow rings surrounding the pupil on the edge of the iris. He was wearing a white button-down shirt, with long black dress pants. His black shoes were stained with red blood. Either he was often injured, or he was always killing the mobs that were threatening this world.

Shorter than this man on her right was a girl that I knew from Imperial Plains. She had dark brown hair that hung over her right eye, the left one visibly green. There was a small dot of a birthmark on her upper noise. The girl was wearing a red shirt with sleeves down to her elbows, and dark skinny jeans. Everyone in Imperial Plains wore clothes that was similar to this, so it was no coincidence that we were wearing virtually the same clothing. I, however, was not wearing pink shoes. Without much deduction, I knew that it was Aria.

Aria, I remembered, was a girl from Imperial Plains who had befriended me in a way. Her house was also on Sandstone Street, although she was a bit closer to the center of town. We had met during a Reckoning Day two years ago, when I was still twelve and she was eleven, and hung out together. I would help her with homework for school that she didn't understand, which would usually be about crafting or fighting. She would aid me with my history, considering that I was worthless when it came to the subject, while she was always studying everything she could about the history of Minecraftia. I was surprised that she had made it out of the city alive. She had never been much of a fighter.

I had no time to say hello to either Aria or Jessica, who I knew, because of the guy suited in iron armor walking up to me. His hand was up in the Minecraftian salute position, so I assumed he must have been a fighter or something. The swirls on his arms indicated that he had been from Magnam Civitatem. "Good morning, sire! May I introduce myself, as the great Remington Forge, hero of the new Minecraftia. I see fit to ridding our fair land of the Endermen, and suggest that you join my legion of heroes in stopping them!" he announced, all said in what I think was just one breath.

"How about we let these people get situated with newcomers before we start offering our help, OK Remington?" suggested Jessica from behind him. Still startled, I raised a hand in greeting to the others, and the two who knew me responded with the same gesture.

"My apologies are yours, sir. Wait, who said we were offering _our _help, my fair lady?" responded Remington, turning back to Jessica with a look of skepticism..

"Because, Remington, he's the Herald of Survivors," Jessica retorted, hands on her hips in annoyance.

"And how exactly do you know this?" replied the voice that Jessica had called Adam coming from the man in the tunic.

Jessica seemed to be changing the alignment of her head every two seconds. "Because I met him before the rebellion, Adam. Everyone, just hold on for a second," Jessica said over everyone, who all seemed to be bickering about how to approach me. Once everyone had calmed down, she turned back to me. "Um, Alex, is Prae here with you?" she queried, obviously hoping for her best friend's survival. I had guessed that she would ask that question.

"I'll go get her. I think she's still asleep," I answered, about to turn away as Remington, the man in iron armor, grabbed the golden helmet from my hand. "Ah, a helmet of gold. Sir, would you mind if I used this magnificent piece of equipment? My head seems to deserve a more aspiring color atop it than gray," he told me. I thought for a second, and translated this in my head to _May I have this?_ I shrugged, "Sure," figuring I wouldn't have used it anyway. And that was true, considering that I thought that my iron helmet was more durable than gold, although both had the same strength.

I wandered off in the early hours of the morning to Prae's house, while the group chattered about their new discovery and Remington examined his new golden helmet. Notch had told me that there would be people, but I was still somehow surprised at the suddenness of their arrival.

After reaching Prae's door, I knocked on it lightly to hopefully wake her up without scaring her or something. There was some scuffling inside, and the door opened to reveal Prae. She wasn't smiling or frowning, but it definitely looked like she had had a better sleep. I couldn't contain my smile of enthusiasm. "There's someone here to see you," I told her. She raised an eyebrow, speaking no words, and walked over to where I had been standing before.

Leaning against the wooden building, I heard a shriek of surprise clearly audible from her. "Jessica! What are you, who are these, why are you here?!" she interrogated, too many questions on her mind for her to actually state one clearly.

The group of eight all filtered into the common room, where we could better get a grip on our present situation. Remington had already put his golden helmet on, and Aria was standing next to me around the table. She looked wary, like she needed to find someone that she knew better than these people that I assumed she had been traveling with.

"Well, I suppose we have a lot of explaining to do, but let's get introductions down first," Jessica suggested, and everyone nodded in agreement.

I supposed that I would start off, considering that I would end up being the leader of everyone. Or at least, I assumed that. "Hello, I'm Alex Glowstone, I guess, and I'm supposedly supposed to defeat the Endermen," I announced, trying to be as humble as possible in my given situation.

"And I'm Praecordia Soulsand, and I'm basically supposed to be traveling with him," Prae followed, brushing her back absent-mindedly.

Standing next to Prae was Jessica, naturally. "I'm Jessica Sandstone, but I assume that you already know that, everyone," she announced, and then ate her words as we all knew her already.

On her left was Remington, who stood tall above us when he realized it was his turn to introduce himself. I think that he was actually standing on his tip-toes to make sure that he seemed larger and more important than us. "I am the great Remington Forge, and I am here to vanquish your fears and bring justice to Minecraftia!" he bellowed, making himself see very heroic. I supposed that that must be his goal in life. He did seem like a nice guy, though.

Next to him was the girl with the beaded dress. "Hi, I'm Khalida Glass. And when we're done introductions I need to know if you have a brewing stand and a cauldron and an enchantment table and if you had a jukebox that would be really nice," she rambled, easily straying off of the topic of introductions.

"Most commonly known as Loopy, however," muttered the taller man. "Adam Woodplank, present and ready for all redstone duties," he told us, eyes practically in slits with distaste of Khalida. I wondered why he didn't like her at all. Maybe they had fought on the way here, but Khalida certainly didn't seem like one to fight with someone.

"Shut up Adam. No one likes your complaining, anyways," spat the man standing next to him. Rolling his eyes, the other man turned back to us. "I'm Skyler Spade. Don't mind Adam, he doesn't like anyone unless you're completely useless and he can use you as a toy. Which, unfortunately for him, describes no one here," he whispered to Prae and I so that Adam wouldn't hear the notice.

"And I'm Aria, but I didn't get my last name from Imperial Plains before it was burned down," she remarked, scratching her arm nervously.

"So how did you guys get out here? Did you escape from Magnam Civitatem too, or what? I'm actually out from Mt. Wolfpack, I suppose, but what about you guys?" queried Skyler.

"Well, I ran away from the Lost Colony over a year ago, but I was still there for the riots. We were in the Library of Prophecies," Prae answered, queuing him to raise an eyebrow.

"Why would you walk into a city in civil war just so you could find a prophecy?" he asked.

And here we go again. "Because Alex is the Chosen One to stop the Raid of the Endermen," she told him matter-of-factly.

"If he's the Chosen One, then wouldn't he be getting ideas on what to do from Notch?" interrogated Adam. He did seem very much like a hater.

"Well, I actually did last night," I answered, and Prae and I continued to tell our entire story through yesterday.

"And last night, Notch visited me in a dream to tell me that you guys were coming to help, and to confirm that the Endermens' army was real. They will be coming for us soon, so we'll have to be wary. Plus, Herobrine is now in danger in the Nether, so we'll have to save him eventually. And also, he hinted at another Realm. Something called Earth. He wouldn't tell me anything about it, as I'm sure no one else knows what it is, but I've got a hunch that it has something to do with the Endermen, so we'll have to learn more about it eventually," I finished. The newcomers mused over all of this new information.

"Well, I think that it's safe to say that we have a lot of things to do," commented Aria, and we all nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, we have to find out what this Earth is. I do wonder why Notch is keeping it a secret, shouldn't he be helping us to get rid of the Endermen?" wondered Khalida. "And does anyone else find it strange that Endermen and Earth start with the same letter? This all seems very suspicious, wouldn't you think that way if you were in our situation? Oh, wait, we all are, so-"

"I think we should take it a little slower, Khalida," Jessica interrupted, saving us from Khalida's endless stream of words. I agreed with Jessica, but what were we supposed to do first?

"I think it's obvious that we should multitask. We'll never finish these things altogether if everyone is working on one simple task," suggested Skyler.

"Yeah, but what are we supposed to do? We've got about five different things to do, and the threat of the army is always hanging above us," thought Adam aloud.

"Well, let's list out what we do have to do, anyways," Jessica confirmed.

"We have to make sure that everyone has at least iron armor. We're facing a lot of threats, clearly, so we'll need people to mine up iron and stuff so that we can build enough of that. I think that I still have two sets of spare iron armor, so we can give those out to those who would like it first. Probably those who are mining," I announced, turning back to my toolbelt to get the other two sets of iron armor.

"Do not fear, my friends! I have a spare iron helmet, so I will escort the person who is mining into the depths of the ground!" stated Remington, beckoning for someone to join him as he went to mine. I put the two sets of armor on the table. It was worth seventy two iron ingots, so we couldn't put them to waste. But it hurt Prae and I to be giving away Anna and Will's old armor to other people.

"I guess that I'll go and mine with him," shrugged Adam, taking one of the suits of armor and beginning to buckle on his chestplate over his tunic. Remington placed down the spare helmet on the table where Adam's new armor had been.

"We also need someone to begin building a place for everyone to stay. We only have two houses right now, plus the common room. So it would definitely be a good idea to have some more houses for the six others," I said, figuring we would need about three people to multitask together.

"I'll do that. I'm a good builder, so I should be able to work on a home," Aria volunteered, taking an iron axe out from her backpack. It seemed everyone else was wearing a backpack. I wondered exactly how I had come to find the toolbelt. It did seem a little odd that I had just found it in a deserted dungeon underground.

"Jessica and I will work on them too. What do you think, three houses and two people can bunk in each? I don't think we have enough wood for six different houses," Prae suggested.

"You're continuously growing more trees in the farm though, right?" I questioned, and she nodded yes. "So then we'll be able to make more soon. We'll need more wool, stone for furnaces, and wood for workbenches and chests. That's just accessories. We need more wood for doors, walls, and roofs, more cobblestone for the floors, and sand for the windows. Luckily, just over that hill is a desert for those of you who didn't know.

"Lastly, we'll need to explore Will's old secret room. We know that there's a noteblock, a lot of redstone, and probably some spare iron, and hopefully diamonds. He had full diamond armor, but we can't use that. He's buried in it, and that's how he'll stay," I spat, angry at the last part at anyone who dared to think that we should dig his body back up just for some armor. We could easily earn it again.

"I guess that I'll go down. There could be some useful stuff for me. I do hope he had an enchantment table, I could use one of those to help you guys get better gear," said Khalida, taking the iron helmet to prepare herself for the journey into the mine. I already had armor, so Skyler took the last set. "I'll go down, too," he shrugged, slipping on his boots.

"I'll go to the abandoned room as well," I concluded, beginning to secure my armor. Remington and Adam left to go and mine, leaving with a loud "Farewell, my comrades!" The girls that were going to build the houses for the newcomers left as well. Once I had finished dressing and Skyler had done the same, the three of us opened the door to the outside. Gavin was waiting for me next to the door, and I introduced him to Skyler and Khalida.

"He's so cute! Did you know that Gavin actually means 'hawk' after multiple translations? Ha, a wolf named hawk! How ironic," Khalida commented in her high-pitched voice.

Skyler looked from her back to the wolf as I changed the date above the common room to June 16th. "He's cool, I guess," he shrugged, pulling out an iron sword so that he would be ready to head into the mine. I led the way over to the mining building, and three of us walked through the door and down the stairs into the depths of the ground.

As we headed down, I thought of a topic on conversation. It easily came to me. "Skyler, you said you're from Mt. Wolfpack, right?" I queried, and he nodded in confirmation. "What's it like there?"

"Well, I was sent out to find civilization a couple days ago when I found the others, and eventually you and Prae. We're actually pretty closeby to Mt. Wolfpack right now. When I left, it hadn't been run over by the Raid of the Endermen yet. Or, for that matter, civil war," he concluded.

"So if we do get attacked by the Endermen here in Fort Imperial, then we'll have refuge there?" I asked to confirm. If this was true, then this would be big news.

"It is, or at least, as far as I know," he responded, ducking his head under a slab of stone.

"I'm afraid not. I can see Mt. Wolfpack in ruins right now, fighting against the armies of the Endermen currently. We will have to defend Fort Imperial if we want a place to stay," Khalida interrupted, and then trudged forward as if she hadn't said anything important.

"What's her deal?" I whispered to Skyler. He smiled nervously.

"I think she was an Oracle back in New Copenhagen. She's the only one in the group who comes from that city. But her visions are pretty often more inaccurate than right. That's why Adam calls her Loopy, because he thinks she's nuts. I personally don't believe any prophecy BS, even yours, but just because so many have been broken. I'll certainly still help you and Prae," Skyler told me quickly, as to give off the wrong impression.

"I still don't think that she's nuts. She just isn't an accurate Oracle, if there is such thing. She talks a lot like most of them, but she's really useful for mechanics and stuff; brewing and enchanting. So let's hope your friend Will had some of that stuff in his hidden room. She'd become a real asset," he concluded. We hurried back up to right behind Khalida. She hadn't noticed that we had strayed behind to talk about her.

There was a small clicking noise as Khalida stepped on the pressure plate. "What was that?" she sputtered, and the silence was broken by a small bell in the distance.

"It's Will's doorbell system. There should be a lot of redstone coming up, but I can't use it at all. Can anyone else?" I mused, mining up the stone pressure plate and holding it out to the others.

"There's no way that I can. Restone just boggles my mind," Khalida remarked, holding her hand out as if to push away my offering.

"I can't either, but Adam is pretty good with redstone. He says that he was an electrician back in Magnam Civitatem, so I guess that I could collect the redstone for him," Skyler suggested, taking the pressure plate out of my hands and beginning to mine up the redstone wiring that snaked across the ground. As we continued at a slow pace to accomadate him, he commented on how much there was. "How in the world did Will get the time to mine up all this redstone and diamonds without alerting you guys?"

"Who knows, but he certainly did a good job of it," I answered, stopping him from walking over the edge in a similar fashion that Prae had when we first found the ravine. "Do we have any sand or gravel so that Skyler can safely mine the rest of the redstone?"

"I have a stack of gravel. I needed flint a while ago so I started mining a bunch of gravel, but only ended up getting a few pieces of flint. Anyway, here you go," Khalida told us, handing Skyler the stack of gravel blocks. He began placing the gravel on the first block next to the column where the redstone was snaking down. The gravel began making an elevator, so Khalida and I walked down the stairs to the right to get down to the ground level of the ravine.

A couple decades of meters away was Adam mining some iron in the ravine wall on top of a sand elevator, about halfway up the ravine edge. On the bottom of the sand column was Remington, holding his diamond broadsword in both hands in front of him. As we touched ground level, he spotted the two of us. "Hello, my comrades! The best of luck goes in your direction for your excavation!" he shouted, causing Adam to shoot a look down at him. If looks could kill, Remington would've dropped dead on the spot.

"How are you guys doing?" I yelled back at him. Doing the quick math in my head, I added on that "We need at least 103 iron ores for three sets of iron armor, minus five for Khalida's helmet!" Khaldia waved in their direction at the mention of her name.

Adam said something down to Remington from his perch above us, and he shouted back toward us. "The two of us currently have 36 ingots of iron! We are making splendid progress, so the best of luck to you as well!"

"Thanks, Remington!" I answered, waving him off. He gave me a Minecraftian salute, and I turned back toward Will's secret room.

Skyler was almost finished with his work coming down. He was only about three blocks above the bottom of the ravine, descending from about twenty-two meters up above the ground. The redstone wiring had almost reached the noteblock, which was exposed in the stone wall next to the iron door. Skyler finished mining up the redstone, destroyed what was left of the gravel elevator, and handed back the stack of gravel to Khalida.

"Well, that was probably about two stacks of redstone. Let's get the noteblock and iron door, and see what's inside," Skyler suggested. He mined up the noteblock with his pick, and I destroyed the iron door with my diamond pick. The door flew into my toolbelt, and I stepped into the room.

It wasn't very large, it just happened to contain some very important things. On the left side of the room was a jukebox next to a chest. On the right side was a brewing stand and a cauldron. In the front of the room was a large circle of bookcases around an enchanting table. It was all kinds of things that I had never dreamed of using.

As I was elated, reality hit me with a hard blow. If there was a brewing stand, then that meant that Will, while possessed, had collected blaze rods without telling us. We could have used those blaze rods to do whatever Herobrine and Notch needed us to.

"Look at all this stuff!" sputtered Khalida, clearly overwhelmed by all of the things that she used so often. But instead, I hurried over and threw open the chest. Searching frantically, I saw many useful things. There was a lot of iron, some obsidian, a couple buckets of water and lava, and even a few left over diamonds. To my despair, there were no more blaze rods.

"What's wrong, Alex?" queried Skyler from the doorway. I stood back from the chest, devastated at the lack of blaze rods. He had used that one, but odds were he had had more and had disposed of them. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. "Nothing. Let's just search the room, OK?"

Once the shock of no extra blaze rods came over me, I opened the chest again. There was about three quarters of a stack of iron ingots in there. That would make 48 more toward the 103 that we needed. Stowing that away in my toolbelt, I realized I only had eight spaces left in it. The things that were still in the chest would have to be divided between us.

Priorities came first, however, and I picked up the nine diamonds and placed them in one of my toolbelt spots. We would have to divide these up so that the everyone would be able to have at least a diamond sword. After telling Skyler and Khalida my plan, I took the four left over pieces of obsidian and put them away. There were still four buckets of water and lava.

"I only need one of each, I was never that good with liquids anyways," I told them, taking two from the chest. Skyler followed suit, and Khalida eagerly collected the remainder. "Liquids are really important for potion brewing. I already have a half stack of netherwart, so I can get to brewing awkward potions right away," she commented, walking over to the other side of the room.

"For now, though, let's bring everything up into the common room so that we can work there. So you obviously can take the brewing stand and cauldron, and I can take the jukebox. I found a music disc on our way here, but we didn't have anything to play it with. That leaves the enchanting table and all of the bookcases," suggested Skyler, walking over to the front of the room where all the books were.

"I guess that I'll take them," I said, raising my iron axe to mine up the bookcases. Khalida looked over from the cauldron of water that she was emptying, shrieked, and hurried over to stop me.

"No! You can't mine bookcases with a normal axe. That would be a waste of so much wood, it's unbelievable!" she scolded, staring into my face with a look of anguish. I raised an eyebrow. I was never one to use bookcases, so she needed to elaborate. She sighed when she noticed my cluelessness. "When you mine bookcases with a normal tool, it only gives you back the books required to make the bookcases again. You need a Silk Touch enchanted tool in order to be able to mine up the bookcases without wasting the wood. Luckily, you have me and an enchantment table in the same room."

She took my iron axe out of my hands and walked over to the table in the middle of all the bookcases. There was a single one missing so that we could walk through, so that made fifteen of them in a circle. If I remembered correctly, that was enough to use a full level enchantment. Khalida set the axe down on top of the table, just in front of the floating book that was randomly turning pages.

The following events could be classified as quite strange. Khalida began muttering strange words in some odd language in a weird voice. Everything was out of the ordinary. Slowly, as Khalida kept working, or whatever she was doing at the moment, the iron axe began to gravitate above the book, and small glyphs began floating from the bookcases to the floating book to the floating axe.

"I think that means she's making progress. From what I hear, enchanting is very hard to do," Skyler whispered in my ear as we waited from behind. He was quiet as to not distract Khalida as she performed the task.

As the glyphs collected into my axe, the wood-cutting tool began to glow a purplish-blue. The more glyphs that it absorbed, the stronger the color became. At last, after about thirty seconds of the color getting stronger, the book snapped closed and the axe fell on the table. It clattered to the floor, and Khalida took a step backward in surprise.

"That was... hard..." she breathed, leaning her arm against the stone wall. The book slowly opened itself, apparently signaling that it was ready to enchant another tool. I didn't need anything else, but I picked my iron axe up off the ground. The dark blue color seemed to swirl throughout the iron axe, as if it was blood on the inside through transparent skin. It seemed that this might have been the case since I could just barely make out the silver and brown colors of the iron head and the wooden handle. It didn't feel any different, but I was sure that this was a lot cooler than your average iron axe.

"Thanks so much, Khalida. This thing seems really cool," I thanked her, gripping it in two hands as if not to drop it. It wasn't like it was that heavy. Shaking my head to break my own trance, I chopped up one of the bookcases. Instead of three books being the remainder, I was given a full bookcase. The Silk Touch seemed to work.

"OK, let's finish collecting these, give the iron to Remington and Adam, and then head up back into the town," I suggested. The others nodded, so I continued to mine up the bookcases while Skyler took out his pickaxe and obtained the enchanting table. Khalida rested with her arms folded, leaning against the wall. "That really drained my energy," she explained. It wasn't a problem for me, so I didn't scold her or anything for not helping.

Once Skyler and I had finished, the three of us exited through the open doorway, the room behind us now vacant except for the stone walls and torches. I figured that we'd be able to do something with it eventually, and there was no point in letting any mobs spawn in there. Adam and Remington were to our left now, and Adam was mining up some iron in the wall at the ground level as Remington shouted taunts to a lone skeleton. "How dare thee come upon us? Do you know who we are?" he yelled, waving his diamond sword in it's direction. The skeleton was instead watching a pool of lava, outside of the sixteen block radius that hostile mobs took notice of Minecraftians. It was faintly ironic to watch.

"Remington!" I shouted, waving my arms to get his attention. He turned to me.

"Hello, Sir Alex! I do hope that your expedition proved successful. We have obtained 87 iron ingots now, and are continuing to make steady progress!" he replied, sneaking a look or two back at the skeleton, which was now firing arrows into the molten rock.

"That's enough! We got a bunch of iron from Will's room, so that gives us 135 ingots!" I told him, and Adam turned away from the wall, told Remington something, and the two of them hurried back over to us.

"Let's go back up then. I hope that they finished our houses," mused Adam, holding his pickaxe in front of him like a weapon. The five of us went single file up the left stairway, and continued through the tunnels into daylight.

The girls seemed to be almost finished. They had each worked on one, and the houses were now aligned in a star shape around the common room. Prae and mine were the bottom two corners, and the three others surrounded the top. The tree farm was off to the right, the dock was down the hill from the top house, and the mine entrance that we were exiting was in between the left and top houses. Aria was finising up the one to the right of us, and Jessica was making a roof on top of the one by the docks. I said hello to both of the girls, and the five of us walked over to my house to build the iron armor.

I built all that I could on my crafting table, and Adam followed suit with the majority of the materials. After it was all done, I gave a chestplate, leggings and boots to Khalida. She stowed them in her backpack, and I realized she wouldn't want to wear anything over her beads unless it was absolutely necessary. We all went into the common room, and we waited around the table for the others to finsh. The sun was already just above the horizon, so we wouldn't have much time to mingle.

Khalida was setting up her brewing station and enchanting room on the roof, using a ladder she had built in the corner of the common room to get up there. She was using some of my spare wood to make makeshift walls and another roof above that room, so we would have mostly everything done in one day. The two last sets of armor were lying on the table for Aria and Jessica, and we waited for them patiently.

As Prae, Jessica, and Aria filed in, we began to discuss who would be bunking with who. Prae and I would still have our own houses because we were the founders of the town. Jessica and Aria would bunking together in the house counter-clockwise from Prae's, and Remington and Skyler would be bunking together in the house by the docks.

"Wait, hold on. That leaves me and Loopy," stated Adam, looking at all of us with a look of disgust.

"Yeah, so what?" grinned Jessica.

"I have to bunk with that crazy girl?!" he complained, slamming his fist on the table in rage.

"What crazy girl?" Khalida queried, climbing down the ladder from the roof. "I finished the enchanting room, and I have a hole above the cauldron so if it rains, it automatically fills up," she announced, taking her spot at the table. "So who am I bunking with?"

"Adam," Skyler snickered.

Khalida was unaware of the irony of the situation. "OK! I'm tired, I'll see you all in the morning," she said, bidding us goodnight. Adam stared at the closing door with his mouth open. "Well, there is no way I am sleeping with her," he sputtered.

"I do think that the dirt is a pretty comfortable bed," Aria taunted, and Adam stalked out of the room. Everyone progressively filed out, going to their houses for a good night's rest.

Gavin was waiting for me outside, and I fed him a piece of rotten flesh. He chewed on it excitedly. I chuckled as he licked his lips. "'Night, Gavin." I could have sworn he barked as soon as I said that.

It seemed that Prae was happier now that more people had joined us. I just hoped that no one else would die. I don't think that either of us could take it.

**So, enter the new OCs! The plot is starting to heat up, but now we have enchanting and potions and all kinds of goodies!**

** How awesome will Alex's iron axe prove to be? Will Adam survive the night bunking with Khalida? And will Herobrine stay alive long enough for the group to save him? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	21. The Wolfpack

** Hello once more, my faithful readers!**

** Wai hello, Chapter 21. You're late.**

** Fashionably, of course, but still.**

**-FullMoonFlygon**

** Indeed, the second half of the Prophecy of Minecraftia has begun, and a rain of terror is now in full swing along the lands of the Overworld. And Nether and Aether, for that matter.**

** But here we are with the next part of an epic story, and I would like to catch up on some stuff.**

** No more Adventure Time thoughts because of long delays like this. I'm sorry, but it's my own necessity.**

** And of course, we are now over 100,00 words. That's always a nice attribute to a story. My goal is now 191,919 due to longer chapters and my lucky number being 19. Whoa, how did you guess?!**

** Also, I am announcing a side project. I always think of side projects and ditch the ideas, but no longer! I shall write an Assassin's Creed fan fiction along with this, because I have come to love that game as much as Minecraft and Call of Duty. It won't be as frequently updated, but yes.**

** Plus, I stress more than ever to check out my deviantART page. And just a heads-up to xoxlexixox (I honestly have no idea, but it's something like that) to give you a thank-you. I do not want to be cocky, because some of the greatest people of all time have gone rotten for this very reason. So no. Not me.**

** And finally, I would like to announce that I'm getting my school computer tomorrow, so expect super-fast updates. Like, faster than early July fast. Yeah, I'm serious.**

** And now, on to the review responses!**

**FullMoonFlygon****: I'm glad that the story excites you that much. Also, I was totally sure that I bombed Khalida. But apparently not. :) And thank you for suggesting the break in the first place. It was nice.**

**Shayor****: Indeed, kudos to FMF for all the cool stuff she's done before and now. So yus.**

**Night wl****: Ask FMF. Remington is her character, after all. But yes, I do use it to say knight phrases deliberately for fun. :D And WHOA that's a lot of parenthesis all right.**

**Sea of Fire****: Never admit that you jinxed yourself. That makes the jinx a million times worse.**

**PigeonFligher****: There are a lot of people in Fort Imperial at this point. But all for a good cause, indeed? And how the enchanting worked was pretty hard for me to imagine. It was like, psychic but close to the heart in imagery at the same time. And I'm sorry that you don't like Adam. Actually, no one does. Even Kyanite Archer, his creator.**

**SimonStormCloak****: Yes, you did catch me with my faults near the beginning. It was present tense before the third chapter, and from now on it's past. No reason. I'll go back and change it at some point, I guess. And I totes got it from BO. Except the S-word is to strong, so I had to change it. And no ocelots, I'm sorry to say, and of course the death will come back. Who do you think this story is by, hmm?**

**Mellifluousness****: I will now say it publicly; it's okay that you only sometimes review to TPoM. I never review to E2HU, anyways. I have to start... But yes, that's hard rock for you. Nice bells at the beginning, and then SLAM Scott Ian is going to kick your ass! Anyways... I know you don't like the killing of the mobs. But this is an apocalypse, my friend. And I have to go back and fix the tons of stuff you pointed out... I screwed up badly, didn't I. Or maybe Prae is just really super-duper flexible.**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: It's too bad that you couldn't scream this time. I would've like it. On the inside. Somehow. Maybe not.**

**Thefinalhero7000****: Indeed, this story has quite a tale to tell, my friend.**

**Ptd the shiny****: Well thank you. It's quite a compliment. The Ender Chest is one of the communities in the Minecraft section.**

**Kierany9****: Yeah, I messed up there. I thought decades could slide for 'multiple tens', but no dice.**

**Eta7400****: Cool! Glad to know I've got another fan!**

**Exb756****: We must both hate them after all. But don't let Flu here. O_o And of course the new characters will die at some point. It wouldn't be TPoM if they survived. But I do plan on letting them survive a little longer this time. So yes.**

**Xandora****: Whoa, super long review. So long story short; I'm really glad that you like all of the characters, and that you for one appreciates the deaths of them. The battle phrases popped up in my mind because I was bored and I had been playing zombies earlier that day, so why not. (Zombies BOII Reveal tomorrow. :D) And I do enjoy cookies as well. Welcome to the club.**

** Okay, everyone. Lots of reviews, thank you. And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 21**

**The Wolfpack**

I woke to the sound of breaking glass, followed by a loud bark. My eyes snapped open, and I tried to survey the room around me. Tried, because Gavin kicked off of my sensitive area quickly. That didn't feel to good, but as I turned to scold the wolf, I realized that I got the better end of the deal.

There was an arrow embedded in the wolf's eye. The flint was causing his eye to bleed badly. Gavin was wailing in pain, sprinting around the floor of my house in surprise. My window was shattered, the arrow having come from outside. I quickly swept myself from under the covers. Standing about five meters away was a skeleton. Unfortunately, it wasn't rogue.

There were multiple skeletons and zombies around my house and Prae's, shooting out the glass and busting down the door. At that moment, my own wooden door was kicked down, giving way to a zombie that immediately began walking toward me. I whipped out Monarch in a flash and drove the diamond sword through it's heart. It collapsed in an instant, and I picked Gavin up in my arms. The wolf was losing blood fast.

Sprinting my way through a clear path to the common room, I tried to force feed some pork to Gavin. The wolf reluctantly chewed the meat, but it didn't seem to be healing him as much as I would have liked. The door to the common room was destroyed, and I hurried through it to find Skyler, Remington, Aria, and Jessica all camping out, all wearing iron armor and holding up swords.

"Alex! Get in quick! We need to get the others before the armies can get to them!" Jessica yelled over the mob noises that were making quite an ambiance outside. The mobs were all trying to destroy the door and windows to Prae's house in order to get in and kill or capture them.

"Is that your wolf? He needs attention, here, give him to me," Aria said quickly, taking Gavin from me and placing him on the stone table in the center of the room. She turned back to me. "You guys get the others, and let's get our valuables. We'll have to fight our way out of here."

She was right, I realized. Remington slashed away a lone spider who was trying to scuttle through the open doorway. "We need to wake the others up so that they can defend themselves until we can get them back to the common room. How can we do that without barging outside?" yelled Skyler.

"Does anyone have a music disc?" I shouted back, and he nodded. "Go put it on in the jukebox upstairs! It doesn't look like the mobs are attacking Khalida and Adam's house yet. Jessica, go get them and bring them here, and get everyone in safety to get armor on. Aria, you get Gavin fixed up. Remington, on me," I commanded, giving everyone something vital to do.

"Sire, you do not have armor on yourself," Remington warned me, striking away a zombie holding an iron shovel.

"I'll manage," I responded, gritting my teeth and holding Monarch in front of me. Remington raised his diamond broadsword and we charged into the clearing between the common room and Prae's house. There was a flood of mobs, and we sliced away the ones that turned their attention to us; creepers, zombies, skeletons, and spiders alike. I hadn't seen any Endermen yet, though. Maybe they were playing Master & Commander: staying on the defensive while their slaves did the dirty work.

"Shall we reach Miss Soulsand above, beneath, or through the armies, sire?" Remington question, holding his sword up to minimize the damage of a creeper explosion. I thought for a moment.

"Let's get up on the roof somehow. The only way we can go through the mobs is killing them all in succession, and the odds of us doing that without getting hurt are pretty low," I answered, driving Monarch through a skeleton's skull.

"Then we shall get to the back of the castle and ascend from darkness!" Remington yelled with his courage amplified a million times. I knocked aside a zombie with the hilt of my sword and we hurried around to the back of Prae's house. Through the glass, she was still sleeping, but slowly stirring. It wouldn't be a good idea to break the glass on purpose because the shards would fall on her, and the mobs would realize we were around here.

"Give me a boost," I told him, and jumped up so that my fingers grasped the edge of the roof. Remington pushed my legs up, and I gained my footing. "I'll be down in a sec. Let me just get her out of there before she gets assaulted," I reassured him, and took out my iron axe and mined up some wood on the other side of the room.

As I did this, a loud bell went off. There were quite a few, ringing simultaneously. With no warning, the bells faded into a loud noise. The noise sounded like string being picked at, like in a guitar, but it sounded electrified. In the background were loud noises I assumed were drums. The music disc, I assumed. The melody continued, and Prae's eyes fluttered open and her red pupils were drawn to me.

"Alex? Were you watching me sleep?" she sputtered, startled, and then turned to face the door as she heard some of the vigorous knocking.

"Prae! Get your stuff, we need to get out of here!" I shouted over the music. I male voice had begun chiming out lyrics.

_Lone star was dark tonight_

_Our diamond shined so bright_

_I watched it go_

_Farther than he ever dreamed_

_I can't take it!_

"What the hell is that banging?!" she shouted as she took Murder out and grabbed my hand. I strained my feet against the wooden roof and slowly pulled her up.

"We're getting attacked by the Endermen. I haven't seen any of them, but there are tons of mobs and they all have the mark on them," I answered, and she hoisted herself to a standing position. "Do you have everything?"

"Murder, tools, spare ores, armor. You got it. Where are the others?" she answered.

"Below you, missus!" shouted Remington from below, waving up at us.

"He came with me to get you. Jessica's getting Khalida and Adam, and Aria and Skyler are in the common room. Let's get a move on," I told her, lowering her down off the roof. As her feet touched the ground and I let go, an arrow from a skeleton caught my left arm. It must have seen me up here. I whipped around, finding the only skeleton staring up at me, and slung my bow over my shoulder. The arrow pulled back and I released, the flint tip slicing it's way through the early morning air and sticking right into the skeleton's spine, which was visible because of it's lack of real neck. A bunch of others turned to me, and I jumped off the roof just as a volley of eight arrows sailed through the air where I had just been standing.

Without the adrenaline, the pain stung from the arrow. I ripped it out of my shoulder, and blood leaked through the hole in my red shirt. Maybe I should have worn the armor after all. After tossing the blood-tipped projectile to the ground, I lifted Monarch. "You OK?" asked Prae, and I nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be. Let's go."

At that moment, the door to Prae's house collapsed on the other side of the window collapsed, and five zombies followed by three creepers poured into Prae's house. They saw us, and the creepers imploded at the sight of our trio, obliterating what was left of her old residence. I waved off the others. "You guys get back to the common room! I've got some unfinished business," I ordered, and stopped as Prae took me in her arms and give me a long kiss.

"Get back alive, Alex. Please," she said as we broke apart, and then followed Remington into the flood of mobs. I hurried over the grass and smashed through one of the windows in my house. The glowstone was still illuminating the room, and I smashed it with my pickaxe. It gave me four pieces of glowstone dust. A rare occurrence, so I took it as good luck. Hopping back out the gaping hole in the glass, I sprinted around the flood which was now concentrating on the south-eastern side of the common room and over to the western side of the building, where Khalida, Adam, and Jessica were climbing through a hole in the glass.

"Alex, nice of you to show up. What now?" Adam queried bitterly, and I climbed through the glass to face everyone as the song kept belting out music.

_In the end_

_I'm kicking down the door_

_And I'm taking this over_

_Too little, too late!_

_In the end_

_You'll be my light in the dark_

_When the sun goes down_

_When the sun goes down on me._

"Let's get the stuff from upstairs and get a move on. This place is going to go to hell," I responded, and we all took positions around the doorway, where the mobs were trying to overflow and get inside of the common room to kill us.

"Aria, how's Gavin?" I asked as I slashed away a spider.

"He's resting upstairs. He should be OK now, I fed him some chicken and beef," she responded.

"OK, everyone. Keep fending off the mobs while I get Gavin and the enchanting equipment. Khalida, you come with me," I commanded, climbing up the ladder with Khalida at my heels.

Once up there, I mined up all the bookcases and enchanting table while she collected everything else; the chest, cauldron, and brewing stand. After taking the jukebox, the song stopped itself in mid-verse. "And to think I didn't make a single potion," Khalida sighed.

It was a good thing that my magical toolbelt made everything in it have no weight or physical value unless it was pulled out, or I would be weighed down like a cow was standing on my back.

Once we were done, I turned to Gavin, who was licking his paws. "Come on, boy. Let's get out of here," I called out, and he barked and jumped down the hole to the first floor. I grabbed a rung and began descending, and a new wave of pain splurged out from my arm. It was really stinging at this point.

"All right, let's get out of here. Skyler, once we're out, you lead the way to Mt. Wolfpack," I yelled, and we broke toward the back window and smashed through.

"I am afraid that Mt. Wolfpack has already been attacked," Khalida told us.

"Shut up, Loopy." Guess who answered with those words.

"Um, guys? Hate to ruin the conversation, but it looks like we have a problem," sputtered Jessica, and my eyes looked up at the new threat. The north had looked like the perfect escape route from Fort Imperial. Well, now there was a Wither ruining our plans.

"RUN!" we all yelled, and broke apart in a million directions. The crowd of mobs went around and through the common room toward us, and those of us who had arrows volleyed them back at the Wither and the pack it was leading. We would have to regroup, but the Wither posed too much of a threat for us to do that immediately.

A skull shot past me and hit one of the docks. The dock was immediately blown to pieces, and I jumped over the river. There were some others on this side of the river. Only Jessica and Aria had ran off into the plains, while we had hopped the river toward the mountain. A large volley of arrows flew across the sky. They all missed us, but we hurried after the two girls as the mobs charged after us.

It was too late to turn back now. Fort Imperial was obviously gone forever. If we could fight off the Wither, then we might be able to stand a chance. We would have to shoot as many arrows at it as we could at the moment. I slung my bow over to my hands, and while running, shot the flint-tipped projectiles toward the pursuing mob. They all hit him steadily, and Prae, Adam, and Skyler all followed my lead and shot arrows at the leader of the pack.

The beast wasn't giving up any ground, though. They had a lot of health, and halfway through their life source, they grew a special armor that made arrows useless against it. At that point, we would have to face the heavy risk of hitting it with swords from up close. As we volleyed arrows at the mob pack, the Wither proceeded to shoot its poisonous skulls at us. I knew that it was a one-shot kill with those, inflicting black death on your body. I dodged one as it blew a huge hole in the field, directly over a cave which quite a few mobs unsuspectingly fell into.

We had caught up with Jessica and Aria, and Skyler had taken the lead. He would lead us to wherever Mt. Wolfpack was, if it was even still standing, and hopefully it would be a short enough trip that we didn't have to sprint away from the mobs forever.

The sun was rising, and the buildings of Fort Imperial were now just a dot on the eastern horizon. We were heading west through the plains, away from Magnam Civitatem and the village we had met Will in. The sun was not in our favor; it scorched us with heavy rays of heat, and luckily the zombies and skeletons in the army caught fire and spread it across the entire group. It was an incredible stroke of luck. The fire spread through the pack of mobs until it reached the Wither itself, which caught on fire and quickly began losing strength. The mobs behind it were turning into a walking blaze, and many of them were dropping off, falling to death. Soon all that was left was the Wither, and one arrow to the chest triggered it to stop.

We didn't dare slow or even think of stopping near it, and it was good riddance. It slowly rose its head to the sky and roared in pain, rage, or something more. Thick hides of skin bound themselves around it, but they didn't put out the fire. I quickly shouted a warning to the others. "Don't use any more arrows! They're useless now!"

The Wither looked back at us and resumed its charge. We were getting tired, and starting to slow. The plains turned into a tundra, the icy landscape exchanging excruciatingly hot weather for something extremely cold. The fire burning on the Wither lapsed, and it was easily going to catch up to us. It was still going at less than a third of it's strength, and many of us had diamond swords. But I still didn't have my armor on; I hadn't had the opportunity to, and that might result in my doom. Maybe I should have considered sleeping in it like Remington. Speaking of which...

"Stand and fight, my comrades! We can not run from our destinies forever!" he shouted, a battle cry that was followed by a skull of black death being shot in his direction. Remington jumped to the side, and the skull obliterated a small pool of ice into droplets of water and flying bits of permafrost.

He was right, I realized. We jumped to the side and the Wither outran us, and shot skulls in our direction. I dodged one that had been forced at Aria and nearly hit me, and we continued through the snow up to the beast. Driving Monarch into it, one of its three heads stared down at me. I was helpless here; if it fired at me, I would easily be hit hard. The Wither did not shoot at me, however. Instead, all three of its heads aimed at the ground and fired.

In my effort to shield my face from what I thought would've been a skull in my eyes, the ground obliterated under my feet. Everyone who had circled the Wither was blown backward, and I fell to the ground helplessly about ten meters away. The Wither aimed all three heads at me. This time, it was going to take me down. I was the primary target, after all. And so the devilish heads opened their mouths and fired. Three skulls of black death, all shooting straight toward me.

And suddenly, blocking the image was gray fur and a red collar. _Gavin._ Two of the skulls slammed into my wolf, the wolf I had trusted and loved, and blew it to my right. One of the skulls managed to hit my leg.

"_Gavin!_" I screamed in anguish, not only grief stricken for what was surely a dead dog but overcome with a wave of nausea. The area where the skull had hit me was glowing green, my jeans cut through to reveal the deadening skin. A diamond sword protruded out from the Wither's torso, and the beast roared its last roar and sunk to the ground. It's body disintegrated, and Remington stood over the black skull that rested on the snowy ground. But my body was anything but cold. As I caught sight Gavin, limp and bright green and _gone,_ I lost conciousness.

**TPoM**

I woke several times, but never truly gaining conciousness for those around me. My first waking was painful. As soon as my eyes drew into slits, my brain exploded with a cry for the end. My leg felt like it was being crushed by all the gold in the world, and the rest of my body was cold and shivery like a fever, except a hundred times worse.

Snow was stilling falling, and the landscape was bare. I was on a makeshift wooden stretcher, and Adam was pulling in front with Prae at the back, pushing above my head. I could see her long brown hair falling over me, her red eyes teary in concern. I would have said something, but I sunk back into sleep.

The next time we were in a dark forest. There was still plenty of snow. Vaguely, as if they were talking a million miles away, I could hear the group in conversation.

"We have to advance forward. He's still alive, but those skulls are a nasty piece of work. Thank Notch he's still alive now without medical attention."

"He is the Chosen One. Skyler, how much longer until we reach Mt. Wolfpack?"

"We're almost there. An hour more through this taiga and we'll reach a mountain. At the top is a huge plateau that is partially man-made, stretching over at least five mountains. That's my home. We can get him to a doctor there."

"Let's get moving then. We've got no time to waste."

There was shuffling, but my eyes felt like lead and I closed them. I was slipping from conciousness when Prae's brown hair tickled my cheek. Barely audible, probably to the point where no one else heard it, I heard her whisper, "Don't die on me, Alex. We're almost there."

I woke again and we were going up a slope. The ride on the stretcher wasn't as bumpy, so I assumed we had reached the city.

"Out of my way! I need a doctor!"

"Keep pressure on that wound!"

I couldn't open my eyes. I just couldn't. It wasn't until my next waking that I could again.

I was on a bed now. It was comfortable; a good change from the wooden stretcher. My back still felt stiff from all the lying down, but I raised my neck and sneaked a look at my left leg. It wasn't too bad anymore. Wrapped in bandages, it actually felt like it was being cushioned. The muscles weren't tense, it just didn't hurt anymore.

I touched a hand to my forehead. Cold as ice, with a thin layer of sweat coating it. I had dreamed something bad, but I couldn't remember. Something to do with smoke...

Shifting my legs, I slowly got to my feet. It was obvious that that was not a good decision. An icy shiver flew down my spine, and my hair began sweating a bit. I wasn't wearing my belt, I realized. What could have happened to it?

Assuring myself that someone had taken it because I was a patient or something here (What else, right?), I started toward the door on the other end of the room. The entire room seemed to be made of solid iron. It was getting harder to put weight on my left leg, but I reached the iron door and opened it with a lever on it's right.

Outside was a hallway, all made of stonebrick. It was almost like a prison. There were other iron doors with switches, and about halfway down the hallway was a nurse carrying a tray of food. At the sight of me, her face lit up, and she hurried over to me.

"Mr. Glowstone? Yes, it's you. You should be lying down, your leg is in critical condition after your encounter with the Wither," she rambled, waving me back into my room. I stood my ground, though, with some support from the wall on my hand. My leg was still too fragile to put much weight on it, but I could still stand or walk or the like.

"I'm fine, I just need to stretch it out," I told her, beginning to walk down from where she came, which ended at a wall with another iron door. "This is a hospital, right? Not some kind of prison?"

"Of course, sir! The rooms are sealed like this because we don't want sick patients getting out to easily. I suppose we did make an exception with your room by putting the lever on the inside, but then again, you are the Chosen One," she responded, staring at me expectantly.

"So my friends already told you?" I asked, and she nodded. "Where are they?"

"They're meeting with the Mayor right now. He's knighting Skyler Spade for his work finding your caravan, and he is going to keep you all in hospitality for a little bit," the nurse replied. The tray of food in her hands was starting to look formidably appetizing.

"OK, I'll head there, then," I shrugged.

"Oh! I almost forgot, here's your toolbelt. We took it away from you because some patients try to break out with picks and diamonds and such. But, here you go," she alerted me, handing me my magical toolbelt. I clipped it back around, the red gem in front blinking brightly.

We had reached the iron door at the end of the hallway. The nurse slid her hand under a little sensor, and the mission whirred some gears and such. After it blinked green, the iron door opened up, and the both of us walked through into a foyer. There were many more nurses in here, some behind reception desks, others walking down other halls for check-ups and surgeries. It was quite more extensive of a hospital than the one in Imperial Plains.

"I never got your name," I said absent-mindedly to the nurse. After a step randomly sent a jolt of pain up my right leg, I slowed to a limp.

"Nurse Beatrice Wool III, at your service," she answered, batting her eyes. She turned me towards a door that led to sunlight. "If you go through there, there will be a minecart rail. Here's five chips, that'll buy you a ticket for a minecart," she told me, handing me a piece of green paper with a five written in various places. I had seen these before; chips, the currency of the three great cities. I had never gotten my hands on any because they were useless, but a lot of an employed person's pay came in the form of these bills.

"Thanks, I guess," I thanked her awkwardly, and she smiled again and turned back to the cells, her long black hair falling down her shoulders as she whipped her head around. I walked over to the door and out onto the street.

"Whoa..." Mt. Wolfpack was a lot bigger than I had thought. Most of it was built on metal and stone supports above deep canyons, and six different mountains poked up to make part of the city. The hospital was on the very top of one, and the minecart tracks flew downward toward the houses and shops below. The other mountains were clearly visible from here; one held a sports stadium, probably for the ICCs. Another held a very large house, and still another on the edge of the city was supporting a large beacon, which looked vaguely like a lighthouse. The sun was hanging at high noon, so I had some time to get to the Mayor's house.

There was a small dispenser with a slot on top, with a little sticker that read '_5 Chips for a Minecart_'. I realized that this was actually pretty expensive if you were going up one of the mountains from below, and renting these minecarts was presumably a one way trip. I knew that buying your own was not cheap, either. Nevertheless, I slid the bill down the small slot and a small minecart icon flew into the back of my toolbelt. I took it back out, placed it on the track, and got into the iron vehicle. Sitting in it, I willed the minecart to move forward.

Very quickly, it tilted over onto the path down the mountain. The wind whipped in my face, creating an unbelievable exhilirating feeling. The wooden landing next to the hospital was soon far behind, and the minecart gradually leveled to the ground. Soon, I was riding above the roads in my minecart, some fifteen meters up from the walkways that people were walking down. Looking at the map in the minecart, I steered it toward the Mayor's house.

Going back up another mountain was boring. This was the mountain with the mansion on top, and apparently where I would be staying for the night. Once I had reached the top and gotten off the minecart, it rolled into a tunnel in the mountain where it was probably redispensed somewhere else in the city to a minecart-renter.

There was a man waiting for me there, dressed in iron armor and carrying a diamond sword. "Alex Glowstone?" he asked me, and I nodded my head, limping over. He smiled at me. "Please, come with me. The Mayor wishes to see you in his dining hall."

The door to the mansion was opened by him for a me, and I caught my breath at the sight of the foyer. There was a cliché staircase that went up in the center of the room, branching off to the right and left onto a balcony with many doors on it. There were hallways on either side of the stairs on the ground floor. "Wow... This place is huge!" I exclaimed, staring at the glass and glowstone chandelier that hung above us.

"Oui, monsieur. If you follow me, we are going up the stairs to the left. In there will be the dining room," the escort said, and we walked together up the stairs and through a doorway.

Inside was a long table that was pointed toward me. It was lined with all of my friends, all dressed in normal clothes (except Remington, of course). Skyler, however, was wearing a red pin on his shirt, reading _Knight_. At the head of the table was someone I assumed to be the Mayor, and he beckoned me toward the seat on his right, next to Prae. "Monsieur Glowstone! How wonderful of you to join us, please sit down," he said in an accent similar to the escort. The escort bowed and walked out the door, leaving me to walk over to my seat.

"Mr. Mayor," I greeted him dully, shaking hands with him as I sat down. My leg creaked and pain shot up my side, but I ignored it.

He seemed to study me. I took a bite of the potatoes that were set before me, along with carrots and a fancily cooked steak. The potatoes were good; as perfect of the vegetable that I had ever tasted. I looked back at the Mayor, who quickly averted his gaze to his meal. He had been looking at me, but in fascination. Not disapproval, and if it was disapproval, he did a damn good job of hiding it.

"Monsieur Glowstone-" he started, but I cut him off.

"Alex. Please call me Alex," I told him, and he smiled.

"_Alex_, I would suggest that you drink plenty of water. The elevation up here is pretty high, obviously, and the oxygen is thinner. So water is a necessity," he recommended, and I took at sip from the iron goblet filled with cold water set before me.

Everyone else seemed quiet, waiting for me to engage in the important conversation. I ate a carrot with my fork, and looked back at the Mayor. "Sir, I was wondering why you were so quick to take us in during our time of need. Are you seeking to help us, or is this a fool's game?"

The man chuckled heartily, and then continued in the accent that he connected his words together harmoniously, in a way. "Monsieur, we at Mt. Wolfpack would like to help any refugees that our search parties may find. Especially if it includes the Chosen One himself," he answered, taking a bite from his steak.

"So you want to get rid of the Endermen as well. You haven't been attacked yet, why is that?"

"Alex, our Fortifiers are perhaps the greatest of all the cities, possibly even better than the Lost Colony's, for Notch's sake," he responded. Jessica's eyes narrowed at this remark. "But we have not seen any mobs except for the usual rogue ones."

"They'll be coming after us. If we're here, your entire city is in danger," I told him, but stopped at a loud noise coming from outside.

"What could that possibly be?" the Mayor pondered. He stood and crossed from the door out onto the landing and out onto the balcony above the wooden platform that was the entryway to his house. There was a large group of people, all carrying signs. They were shouting slogans and chants, and reading their words and listening to their cries, their message was something of stop sending scouts to find refugees and protect this city in the first place.

"My people! Please, do not be rash. Because of our search parties, we have found the Chosen One and his battalion!" the Mayor protested, but the people below protested. "My husband is out there in danger from the Endermen!" one woman yelled. "We need all the protectors we can get!" another man shouted.

"We are collecting more by saving innocent lives in the first place!" the Mayor retorted, but the shouts were louder. "What about _our_ innocent lives! This is tyranny!"

All of a sudden, the entire group of civilians shouted that one word, over and over again. "_TYRANNY, TYRANNY, TYRANNY!_" We ducked back inside.

"What will you make of that? We can stand and fight here in Mt. Wolfpack, or go out and die on our own," I told the Mayor, and he sighed.

"I will find a way to reason with the people. Monsieur Glowstone, I would rest that leg of yours. There is a bedroom down the hall for you," he explained, and walked away. The group of us walked into the bedrooms, with everyone bunking with someone else. I was going to be with Prae. She milled around, cleaning her armor and sharpening Murder while I slipped into my bed. I couldn't fall asleep, though. The loss of Gavin was just too great for me to sleep easily. And now the problem in what we thought was a safehouse; a guardian city from the Endermen. Now there was a threat of uprising within the city itself.

"What do you reckon about all of this?" I asked Prae absent-mindedly, staring at her. She turned and walked over to sit on my bed. Images flashed through my mind. If we weren't in the middle of the coming apocalypse, we would be dating; something I never saw myself doing.

"I say we stay here until the armies come for us. There's no denying that they will, after all," she sighed, staring into my eyes.

"Then what?" I queried, but I already knew. I could see it in her red pupils that she was thinking what I was thinking.

"We're going to have to go back to the Nether and collect the blaze rods that we need," she responded.

"And save Herobrine," I added, and she nodded. She closed in towards me and we kissed. This was basically how you could make the best of the hell that we lived in.

I fell asleep shortly afterwards to the sound of metal on metal, her sharpening Murder against iron plates. It was almost a conforting sound, and I silently slipped into unconciousness. With my leg throbbing painfully and the grief of losing Gavin, I was surprised that my mind was at peace. Perfectly clear as I closed myself from the outside world.

**When this story comes back after a long break, it does so in fashion! Welcome to the apocalypse, my friends. The plot thickens, and we await the doomsday of Mt. Wolfpack.**

** What will happen with the citizens' uprising? What will be the new accolades of Skyler's promotion in the Order of Wolfpack? And how will Alex get over his injury? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	22. Revolution Screams

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** So this is a relatively short chapter. I am aware of that. The reason is, I started to get stumped about what to write about near the end without starting the next day, where something important will happen. So there's that.**

** Also, I have a reason to be depressed with my personal life. So don't ask, but if my writing is sad, then don't criticize. FMF already knows why. :(**

** OK, so some of you probably noticed the Assassin's Creed story I posted. Well, it's off the site because I just want to devote my time to TPoM, and I didn't really like where it would've ended up going. I think the better idea is to write a Stand fic with basically the same characters. But not right now.**

** Also, make sure that if you haven't already, check out my dA page. This is super vital right now because this week, every day I'm releasing an exclusive coded spoiler that you can decode to find out something important. But be warned: some of the things may make absolutely no sense at this moment of the story.**

** So yeah. And now, on to the review responses!**

**Creepers rock****: Sorry, but if you were paying attention, the OC contest closed a couple weeks ago. Sorry, but I'm not accepting anymore.**

**VA842867****: Thanks for the compliments. I never have really worked on a long effort like this in writing, so your support helps!**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: I didn't realize that he's your younger brother. So maybe we have a fan dynasty, or something. And I'm sorry if he did whine, but worry no more!**

**FullMoonFlygon****: It's true that that is one of my weaknesses in writing. So thanks for the advice, I'll use that whenever I get the opportunity to. And yes, I killed the dog. What are you going to do about it?! And yes, you are not my girlfriend.**

**Mayosoul****: Interesting…?**

**SimonStormCloak****: It's not your fault. I'm just devious is all.**

**Sea of Fire****: I know. It's my specialty.**

**PigeonFligher****: If Remington gets a caramel apple, then I want one too. And something does happen to Mt. Wolfpack….**

**Night wl****: It's OK, it's a natural part of my stories. So don't fear my killing sickness. And a Wither is a new mob that they are implementing in 1.4. Go look it up. I didn't exaggerate its power.**

**Thefinalhero7000****: I'm thinking about implementing the night vision potions. It would be pretty cool, and it would help in later scenes.**

**Ptrip3****: Murderer? I'm just doing my job. But the leg injury wasn't too bad, he recovers pretty quickly. And I do update slower because of school. I'm just really good at school.**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 22**

**Revolution Screams**

I woke again in the middle of the night. I had gone to bed in the late afternoon, so what could I have been expecting? The problem was, my left leg was still poisoned from the Wither, and it was throbbing painfully as I opened my eyes in the dark bedroom. This had been the first night I had slept without Gavin at my side for a very long time.

At that instant, I remembered my wolf's dead body in the tundra. He had sacrificed his own life to save me. Maybe Notch had given him the message that I needed to survive, or maybe it was just an act of friendship. At least, as close to actual friends you can be with a wolf. But still, as far as I knew, Gavin's body was still lying out in the cold weather, along with the death dust of the Wither that had killed him.

Lifting the covers of my bed up, I sneaked a look at my own injury. The skin around the infected area was still tinged green, visible through the rip in my jeans. I would need a new pair if I didn't want to run around exposed like this.

Turning my head to the left, I saw Prae sleeping under her blankets, a good five blocks away. Some mildly suggestive thoughts wormed their way into my mind, but I pushed them off right away. I didn't need things like that riddling with my true mission.

It was Prae after all who had given me the go-ahead on what we needed to do next. Unfortunately, she was correct on what she said. We needed to go back to the Nether and get the blaze rods we needed. I feared that place; it had taken Anna's life, and it had caused Will to be enslaved by the Endermen. But Prae was indeed correct that we needed to go back. We needed the blaze rods for whatever reason, and we needed to save Herobrine.

I wondered what Herobrine was doing right now. His last stand was surely over by now. His forces had been so much lesser than the attacking Endermen's, so in reality, he had never stood a chance. But what if he was still OK….

No, he wasn't. I knew it based on common sense, logic, and Notch's word. Notch wouldn't lie to me ever, because he didn't have an appropriate reason to. But if he didn't need to lie, then why was he so distant when our conversation was brought to Earth and Emily?

The truth was, I couldn't be pondering these things. Mt. Wolfpack was in serious danger of the Endermen, and its own people. The only thing that I really could do right now was wait for whatever brought the city down first; the citizens, or the mobs.

I turned back over on my side to look at Prae. I wondered again why what she had said about the Nether had to be true. The firestorm had been hell, and there had been so many Zombie Pigmen under the Endermen's control trying to kill us. And then there was the terrible sinking feeling when I had found the blaze rod already used in the brewing stand.

All I could do was wait now. With that, I closed my eyes once more and fell back asleep. In the morning I would call for a meeting with the Imperial Battalion. But for now, I just felt like resting.

**TPoM**

Notch once more entered the Earth vault in the Aether. He walked past the hologram of his old planet, past the list of species there, and to the chrome portal. It was time to go back to the First Realm once more.

In the Aether, however, things were very different. The constant threat of the Endermen invading the heaven dimension was now imminent, and the angels all had shifts on patrol. DEFCON 2, the sign still said. There was no time to waste for Notch. If his world didn't survive this attack, then he had to have a backup plan. And this was why he was carrying a folder as he walked into the portal.

It was a manila folder, as simple of one that you could find. The now familiar tingling sensation filled him as his eyesight failed, turning everything into a green vortex. The tingling stopped, and he stepped out with the folder.

Something was different in Stockholm. Notch couldn't put his finger on it, but there was certainly something different in the air. He hoped very much that Sergeant Richter had upheld his promise to protect the portal. If something was amiss though, it was up to Notch to find out what was happening.

The manila folder was engraved on the front with red writing that said '_Confidential Intelligence_'. There had to be a way that he could deliver it to the Resistance. He walked past the catwalk that had fallen when he had first visited Team Bravo here, and well aware of the electromagnetic pulse he had just sent out giving away his position, he walked out the door onto the war-ravaged street.

"My God…." The war had taken a larger toll on his former city than he had thought. Small fires flickered in minute piles of ash. There were many footsteps on the ground in the thin layer of dust. As Notch walked through the street, he left no trace. On Earth, he was nothing more than a hologram now.

Something moved to his right. He turned, looking at a doorway half-filled with sandbags. The windows on the building were barricaded with planks of wood. There was no sign of any other humans.

All of a sudden, he heard a loud rattling. It was unmistakable. A helicopter coming through the streets. He ducked into the building, hiding behind the sandbags, and watched the upper levels of the buildings around him. The chopper flew past, causing a small tornado of dust under it because of it flying so close to the ground.

The helicopter might have been just a small obstacle to the unobservant, but Notch searched it's sides. There was nothing recognizable about it; no American flag, no British, no Canadian, French, or German. The bitter truth flashed through Notch's mind. Was Stockholm now under Anonymous control?

After the flying steel bird made its pass, Notch slipped the manila envelope back into his backpack, and took out a small pistol. A suppressed P99. Nothing special, but enough to get him through the guards he would surely encounter if he wanted to know for sure if the Resistance was even making an attempt at taking back the city.

He vaulted over the pile of sandbags and hurried to the side of the street, heading east to where the American camp had been. His pistol hung at his side as he sprinted along the deserted streets, constantly keeping an eye out for any people. Even though they couldn't hurt him with any of their weapons, he wanted to stay hidden. Staying hidden could mean constantly having an outlet through Sweden.

At an intersection, he stopped. There were footsteps coming the right. He ducked behind the frame of an old car and waited. There were two guards walking, and he silently crept over the car and shot them both in the neck. He had found the neck to be a greater weakness than the head because it would cut off the victim's breathing and circulation virtually immediately. The two men dropped to the ground, helpless from Notch's cunning.

An amusing thought flashed through Notch's head. What if he was the next Guerilla fighter for the Resistance? Yeah, right. They had a kill/capture on him anyway, even if he was on their side. The day he became an elite fighter with Americans was the day he bid goodbye to Minecraftia forever.

He checked the bodies. There were not the familiar Resistance patches, which showcased a fist holding a lightning bolt. That was the symbol for anyone opposed to Anonymous, and there was no patch with that logo on these men's combat suits. The worst thing he had feared was true. The Americans weren't here anymore.

Silently making his way back to the portal, he made the inferences in his mind. Surely the United States had just left for a brief time, and would be back to defend the portal. It was too important, and the evidence showed its existence to be true. The only way they couldn't be coming back was if all of Team Bravo had died, and the Resistance hadn't taken their word.

As Notch stepped back in the portal, he figured he would check back every day or so. The Resistance had to secure Stockholm once more. If they weren't even making an attempt after a week, Notch figured he would just have to take matters into his own hands.

**TPoM**

"What do you mean we're not going back to Stockholm?! The portal's there, I swear to God, I'm not crazy-"

"Sergeant Richter, please. We're not going back because there is no need for us to be there. It is a dead city that the Anonymous forces have just happened to take into their own hands."

"If it's such a dead city, then why are they heading back to it? I'm telling you, Notch is real. He's not dead, and if you asked anyone else who was on Team Bravo, they could tell you that what I'm saying is true!"

"But there's a hole in that claim, Dylan. Team Bravo is disbanded, and you and Hudson are the only survivors from any of the Swedish Special Force Teams."

"Lieutenant, I do believe that Sergeant Richter isn't lying. If the portal does happen to be there, which I support, then I think we should take the city back and keep it under Resistance control. What if the Anonymous ground forces there try to use it? What could the consequences be?"

"The consequences would be that they blow the entire city sky-high like Markus Persson did two hundred years ago!"

Lieutenant Spiller gave Hudson a look of rage as he said this. We were in a meeting with him, who would from now on be giving us orders as Specialists for one-man missions. He had called us in to give us this information that we were one man units now, and I had responded to say that we needed to retake Stockholm so that we could hold the portal. Unfortunately, I was the only one other than Hudson who actually knew the portal existed, so he had quickly responded that we didn't need to take it back if there was no reason to.

That wasn't true, though. Now I was in a fight to try and convince him, but it wasn't going my way.

"Look, you two are just going to be laying low for a few days as we have nothing for you to do in Scandinavia. Just take some time to cool down and grieve the losses of your friends. We know that it's hard to lose people that are close to you, especially when you've been fighting alongside them the entire time you've been in the war," Spiller told us. I shook my head. It wasn't that simple.

"OK, Lieutenant, fine. We'll stay here at the camp. But just get me back in the action, even if you aren't going to have me go to Stockholm," I sighed, turning out of the building and walking back to my quarters. Hudson hurried up to walk alongside me.

"So that's it? We're just going to be giving up?" he said in an accusing tone.

I opened the door to my room and turned back to him. "Not quite, my friend. If we're not going to be aided by our superiors, then I'm just going to have to take matters into my own hands."

"What do you mean?" he stuttered, and I raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't it obvious? We're going to suit up and fly in ourselves."

Hudson's face darkened. "That's deserting…. Everyone will be after us!"

"Don't you see that we need to? Notch wasn't kidding about how important this is. We have to retake the portal, or at least kill all the Anonymous forces that are stationed there to guard it," I told him grimly, and sat down on my bed. "If deserting is the only option, then so be it. I don't know why, but I'm being consumed in believing that Notch is right."

**TPoM**

I woke in the morning, refreshed now. As I pulled the covers away and stood up, I realized that my leg felt significantly better. It was still hard to put weight on it, but any form of progress was a good sign.

Prae was reading a book. "Heyo," I greeted, walking over to the mirror. This room reminded of a hotel room somehow, with its double beds and closet and stuff. It just felt like that. Prae nodded in response.

My face was withered, almost wrinkled. No, that wasn't it. I was just tired. My hair was messed up, shooting all over in small blond waves. My eyes stood out in blue dots against my pale face. I looked down at my leg. The green bruise was beginning to fade.

"What are you reading?" I asked to the mirror, and Prae closed the book and walked over beside me. Our reflection stood together, united in a world where no one was friends.

"Just some old history book about the Creeper Wars. Nothing important, but it says in there that because of them, Mt. Wolfpack had a lot of technological advances. I was thinking, what if the people who are revolutionizing got ahold of some mega-weapon or something?" she mused worriedly.

This was a new factor. "What kind of mega-weapon? A giant sword, or what?"

"Alex, it says that the Mt. Wolfpack labs were creating a new mob. You know, a utility one, like the Snow Golem. But it says that it was made of _iron_."

My jaw dropped. That would not be good for the rebels to have. "We just have to hope that they don't get ahold of it. Maybe it will come in use when the mobs attack," I reassured her, but she burst into tears.

"I can't take it anymore, Alex. There's always the threat of the mobs, and now we have our own people trying to kill us off because of people like Skyler doing their jobs!" she cried, sobbing into my shoulder. I was caught off guard, and stood like a moron patting her back.

"It's OK. We'll find a way out of here with the others. Look, let's sit down and write down what we need to do," I comforted her. That was what I would always do back in school in Imperial Plains. Write down all of my homework with Aria and get it done so we could go to the markets or Spleef games.

She sat down on my bed, wiping tears from her eyes. I walked over to the desk, searching for a paper and quill. "I just don't want to have to kill any people. And all the mobs, it's not even their fault that they're attacking. It's those damn Endermen," she sighed, shaking in an effort to stop her crying. I picked up a piece of blank paper and wrote down a small one in the top left corner, almost like a bullet.

"OK. What first?" I queried, even though the answer was obvious. She stared up at me, speaking only to answer the question.

"We have to get out of here as soon as we can. Waiting in Mt. Wolfpack is like standing on a time bomb," she suggested. I took that as a start and wrote down _Escape Mt. Wolfpack_ beside the number one.

That wasn't going to be easy. "Then what? Should we get our footing at some specific biome, or what?" I questioned, and she thought for a moment.

"Maybe on a plain or desert next to an ocean. We can always grow food if we can't find pigs or cows or chickens to hunt, and an ocean is a good place to do exactly that," she suggested. I should have known she would want to camp near water so that we wouldn't have to kill any mobs for food. I wrote a two, and then _Make Civilization Near Ocean Biome_.

"And we should make our own city. The greatest there ever was, and everyone was a hero to protect and serve. We need to defend against the mobs, and that is a good way to," she blurted. "The city should be named Novum Eboracum. That's Latin for New York, which was a really big city a long time ago. Before the Creeper Wars, I mean."

I considered it a good name, so I wrote that down next to a number three. If it was a big city, then we should symbolize that as our own. "And then we have to go back to the Nether," I realized, writing down _Acquire Blaze Rods_ next to a four.

"How will we save Herobrine, though, if we have no idea where he is in the Nether?" Prae sighed, and I was stumped. How would we know where the Airships had gone without a tip?

"Maybe Notch will give me a clue. I don't know, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," I said, exasperated. Then I wrote _Save Herobrine_ next to an ink number five. That was all we could do right now, so I figured it was time to start working.

No sooner had I suggested to Prae that we call everyone together to group up and leave Mt. Wolfpack, there was a large explosion in the distance. I dashed to the window in our room, with Prae close behind. Off in the distance, on a mountain near the center of the city, what was left of a power plant, oil refinery, or something of the sort was just a large plume of fire.

"I think the revolution has started," I whispered, afraid. The column of smoke rising from the red and orange flames was ominous, and I could feel the heat through the glass all the way on another mountain. No, it was just my imagination. Right?

"Let's get everyone together and fight our way out of here," I sputtered, and hurried to the door to the corridor where all the other rooms were while Prae threw on her backpack.

"Oh Notch oh Notch oh Notch," I said under my breath, knocking on the doors vigorously to rouse the others. I slipped the piece of paper with our goals on it into my belt as Remington opened the door to one, revealing himself and Skyler behind him.

"Hello, sire! I do believe we should be leaving this fair city, as the people of our great nation are-" Remington started, but Skyler cut him off from behind.

"Let's move, shall we? I'll be one of the main people they'll be after, and my guess is the mobs will be due any second in the erupting chaos," he exclaimed worriedly, pushing past me with iron sword in hand. The three of us roused the others from their rooms, which didn't have windows so that they didn't know what had happened yet.

Once everyone was assembled, I slipped my armor on with the others. Pushing my helmet on, I raised Monarch above me, along with everyone else; bows and swords alike. "We will fight to get out of this city until the end, my friends! For Fort Imperial!" I shouted, and we charged out of the corridor, down the staircase past a very worried looking butler, and onto the wooden platform that overlooked the city.

The destruction was worse than I had thought. All the other mountains were in flames or being stormed by rebels. The rebels were all in large legions, each carrying a flag with a light blue fist holding a yellow lightning bolt. I was able to get a good view of one because of ten minecarts speeding up toward us on the rails leading up to the Mayor's house.

"Let's make sure that they don't get up to the house successfully. Don't kill them, but use force as necessary," I ordered, and we crowded around the train stop. The carts slowed up in front of us, revealing a particularly unprepared group of fighters.

All the men and women had were stone and wooden swords, with the occasional leather helmet. The flag was rippling in the high atmosphere's wind, and we stared them down in our well-equipped suits and holding our weapons. The revolutionaries sunk back to the backs of their carts. If this was the execution party sent to kill the Mayor, then the rebels really had high expectations for what surely would be a failure. Strength in numbers, though, even if we had more this time around.

"Get out of the carts and give them to us and we won't hurt you," I growled, and they slowly got out. We destroyed them before they could go into the mountain, figuring no one would throw us in jail for stealing, and put them against the other side of the platform. "You guys be careful," I said to the rebels, who stared at us in wonder and confusion, most frequently a mixture of both. As we began to roll down the side of the mountain, they raised their flag, shouting "Vive la revolution!" French for 'Long live the revolution'. They did speak a lot of French here in Mt. Wolfpack, like Latin in Magnam Civitatem or English anywhere else.

We would leave the Mayor and his royals to defend for themselves, I figured. In the fall of any political base in all of Minecraftia, the last thing I was worried about was some pig who happened to like baked potatoes more than I did being executed for poor decisions.

Of course, with the fall of man comes the fall of unity. And with the fall of unity comes a great weakness of the city. I was hearing the voices.

"_Attack, armies of mobs! We shall rid the Overworld of humans once and for all!_" came an Enderman's voice from far off in another part of the city, and a mass explosion of a building followed. Our train was beginning to level out above the street, and I had no idea where it was headed. One thing was clear, though: we needed to get out of Mt. Wolfpack right away, due to the rebels and now also the Endermen.

"Guys?" I sputtered, and everyone turned to me. "I hear them. The mobs are here."

The train sped along over a bank in flames, and another roar of voices shook the city. "Let's just go north, away from where we came in!" shouted Skyler, and he took over the front of the train.

This was complete mayhem. My conviction that we were going to make it out of Mt. Wolfpack alive was fading considerably. The train darted over a small manmade canal and over a church, and then we caught sight of a three way battle.

There was an intersection below us, and the train intersection above had been destroyed. We were going to fall. On one side were the rebels, waving their flags and knocking back their enemies. Then there were the government fighters, well-equipped and fighting off the rebels. And marching up the last intersection was an army of mobs, all under the Endermen's control. There were mobs of every sort, and included were what Prae had described as a mega weapon. They were large beasts made of steel, with vines snaking all over them to show they hadn't been touched in years. I did not want to have to fight one.

Our train was heading right for the hole in the tracks. "Jump!" someone yelled, and we sprawled off onto a building's roof on the side of the intersection. Above the action, we watched as the train crashed down into the intersection, blowing back all three factions in a mass of fire and iron.

"Keep moving north!" Skyler shouted, now acting as our leader because of his familiarity with the city. We ran to the edge of the building and jumped into the intersection, and then sprinted north away from the battle. The road leading north had been the only one not being taken over by one of the conflicted factions.

And so we continued. Every once in a while we would come across a pack of mobs, and slay them all. There was no time to waste. Soon, we reached the base of the last mountain. We were almost out of the city, and it had taken a good hour.

I stopped to catch my breath, and so did everyone else. In the time the battle had been fought, the entire city had literally gone up in flames. There were dead bodies everywhere; mobs, government, and rebels alike. But the Endermen voices weren't there anymore. It seemed that they had retreated to let their mob army do all the dirty work.

"Where are we headed after we get out?" Jessica asked as we slipped down the mountain and back into the wilderness. We were on a plain, and a light snow was falling. My leg was beginning to ache from all of the effort we had put into making our way through the city alive.

"We need to find a good place to start a new town, and we have to make sure that we can survive and thrive," I answered, pushing off a large misshapen rock that bulged out of the mountain.

"And we're going to need more people. A larger population could mean a better chance of surviving," Aria commented.

"We shall send parties to find others in need, and take them in as our own!" Remington brainstormed.

I trekked along, now once more assuming leader of our clan. We were making footprints in the light snow, which would end up making us easy to follow. "Let's get to a bay and make a town from there. And yes, getting more people into the city would help. But we still have a war to fight," I acknowledged.

Most of the day was spent walking along various biomes. At last, near the end of a plain, we found a large bay that was for the most part wrapped around by the plain, creating an easy to make harbor for us that could support a good amount of boats and the like.

"Let's camp out here. We'll start making the actual city later, but we should at least have a small house for us to sleep in tonight," I suggested.

We evened out an area near the edge of the water, and I considered it a town hall in the future. This time, we wouldn't need to leave. I would ensure us the ability to stay here, even if finding more people was an effort. The area was then made into a building, with a sturdy roof, a few windows, double doors, a wooden frame, and finally a cobblestone floor. It was large, about twenty by twenty meters. We placed beds around the walls, and I put up torches around. Everyone put something special next to their bed. Khalida, her brewing stand. Skyler, his jukebox with the song in it. Remington, an item frame showcasing an old iron sword which he didn't use anymore.

I set my bed up near the front corner, next to Prae's. Next to her bed was a stand with her diary on it. Typically, I placed my block of glowstone down next to me. As the sun set outside, the warmth of it spread through my body.

I faded into sleep, Prae sound asleep in the bed next to me. The glowstone's warmth spread through my body as I faded from consciousness.

**And so ends all form of organized civilization in Minecraftia. And now the mobs have control over Mt. Wolfpack, as well.**

** How long will the new city last? When will survivors begin to populate the safe city? And what is in the manila folder that Notch so dearly needs to give away? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	23. A New Civilization

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** So begins the resurrection of any form of unified life in a ruined Overworld: A New Civilization is here!**

** Many things await you in this chapter, including Alex shirtless, a lighthouse, the forming of the Imperial Battalion, and the introduction of he who seeks to destroy all.**

** Yeah. That was a bit of an awkward paragraph.**

** Anyways, now for the important new that you all must know: I'm back on the three-day schedule, as obvious right here. Posted 22 on Tuesday, and then Chap. 23 on Friday. Hopefully I can keep the trend going, but honestly, it's a hard thing to do.**

** Also, if you haven't already, you should REALLY check out my dA page under the name CTMechanix. That is really super important, because every day this week I've been releasing a small coded spoiler for TPoM and its sequel. There is only one day left (Saturday), so you won't have to do much more waiting to realize the true experience. Go do that. Now.**

** My depression has deepened, and now it has faded thanks to new developments in my life, none of which actually counter the event of last Friday night. Meh. I'll get through everything eventually.**

** However, I would like to say this: to hell with One Direction. I didn't really care about their existence, like, I didn't mind if someone fangirled (Or in a few very rare cases, fanboyed) for them. That changed this morning, friends. I was on the bus, and I was talking with my four friends, and these two girls were playing the new One Direction video or something. So they were screaming because Harry looked hot in a sprinkler or something. And so I asked them to turn it down because I couldn't hear my friends talking. And they grabbed my arm. And bit me. And wouldn't let go.**

** So thanks, boy bands. Thanks a lot.**

** And now, on to the review responses!**

**PigeonFligher****: I do agree that I might be getting too many caramel apples. But I'm sorry that you didn't like the last chapter. It makes me sad, and sadness calls for moments of silence like you suggested.**

**Sea of Fire****: Interesting. I'll take your word for it, even though I have no idea what the effects could possibly be.**

**Exb756****: That's Ok that you didn't review for once. I'm flexible. But people don't realize just how important Sgt. Richter's storyline is…. And my problems? Girl problems, of course. D: But it's complicated, and I don't really feel like explaining it right now. Maybe another time, maybe another time….**

**Night wl****: Oh, come on! What fourteen year old sleeping in the same room as a girl he finds attractive and happens to be dating doesn't at least **_**briefly**_** think of… things. And Emily isn't that important, honestly. But I might make her important if I feel like it.**

**FullMoonFlygon****: NO! Don't cancel it! Oh wait, you just told me you're almost done anyway. And he paused his game? I might have to have another word with the infamous FullMoonFlygon's brother who accused me of writing a love story. Oh God. Married and Mojang? Maybe I know your name, but…. Heh. Yeah.**

**Mellifluousness****: 'ALEX THAT'S DISGUSTING'. See above. And vive la revolution indeed. Also, how DARE you accuse us… I WILL STRANGLE YOU FLU!**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: Five days? Well I'm here in just THREE! Oh yeah!**

**VA842867****: Well, welcome to the regular reviewers club! Also known as the Magnam Army! And I'm glad that you appreciate my betaing of my own story.**

**SimonStormCloak****: That is a good song, even if I'm a metalhead.**

**N00blord****: Found what, exactly?**

** Alright then, now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 23**

**A New Civilization**

My hand was draped across my body, holding onto the sleek surface of my block of glowstone. It felt cool, even though it had come from the Nether. The night was black, and I slept peacefully with the rest of the Imperial Battalion.

Dreaming, I shook from coldness. Rain was pounding down all around me, making the stone cliff I was standing on more increasingly slippery. It was night, and the cliff hung over a large chasm that gave way to a heartless sea. The ocean water pounded against the stone wall. Staring down, I began to fear the water.

There was something behind me. Not a living being, or even an object. Just a strange soul that filled the air with its existence. Was it here to kill me, I thought. Spray from the water slashed across my face. I was trembling all over. It was just a dream, something my mind had created to scare me. Assuring myself this was easily proving harder than I had thought.

I turned around, now facing the being. It was more of a black fog than anything. "Who are you?" I said aloud, watching as the fog molded itself into a shape. Thunder crackled across the sky, and the being drew back, still taking its form. I looked back at the pounding waves. If this was just a dream, then there would be no point in staying and watching the ocean. So I followed the fog.

The stone cliff slowly drew itself downwards. I used my hands as extra feet to stabilize myself on certain ledges. At the bottom, the stone turned into a withering grass. It was yellowing in parts, and crunched under my feet with death.

The fog was beginning to make a shape I could make out. It almost looked like a bird. Birds had gone extinct a long time ago, though. What was it? It stopped over the grass, and the fog seemed to switch sides. So, I guess the front of the being was facing me now. But its head didn't look like a bird's. It was more human like, sticking out in a rounded shape. And then its eyes took form; like a human's, but narrower and purple.

This was some sort of Enderman. The fog all collapsed inwards to create long, scaly black wings with a gigantic wingspan. It wasn't a bird after all; it was a dragon.

"Who- What are you?" I wondered, staring into its eyes. We were locked at some sort of stalemate. Was it going to kill me, or aid me, or what?

And then it spoke. Its voice was icy like a normal Enderman's, but it was deeper and more of a growl. "You are destined to die, Glowstone," it said, and I bored my eyes into it.

"Is this a link? Or my own imagination?" I spoke back, and it didn't answer. Instead, the fog slowly began dissolving its assumed form, once more creating a black smoke screen. And then it faded.

The rain continued to splash down on the ruined land around me. I wasn't waking up, so it must not have been a link. As soon as I thought this, the fading fog parted completely to reveal Notch running toward me in his brown robe. His bowler hat was waving in the wind. "Alex! Oh dear me, Alex, is that you?" he shouted, running across the dead grass.

I waved back in confirmation. "Yeah. What was that thing? This feels like a link, but-" I started, but he cut me off.

"It has the properties of your imagination. This is quite fascinating, I never realized that this could happen in a link," he mused, slowing to a jog and then stopping all together in front of me. "That black fog was most peculiar, it reminds me much of something that hasn't existed in a long time."

"A bird? Because that's what I initially thought it might have been, but then it looked more like a dragon of sorts," I queried, offering my perspective of the being. He shook his head vigorously.

"Not a bird, no. It was a dragon that I created a long time ago, but I banished it. I just don't understand how your imagination could create a form of it if no one has seen it for years," he wondered aloud, and I watched him, waiting for any description of the supposed dragon. He noticed me staring at him, and shrugged. "I'm sorry but that's from a long time ago. There's nothing I can tell you about it these days."

Raising my eyebrow, he shook his head in exasperation. "Is there something wrong, Notch?" I queried, but he turned around, as if searching for something.

"Alex, come closer," he whispered, and I slowly crawled over a slab of stone and up close to Notch. He whirled his head around. "I can't afford a guard right now for the link. So I believe that the Endermen are intruding. That thing you saw, it was their master," he breathed, eyes feverish and constantly darting around.

"Why you can't you get a guard right now?" I interrogated, but he shushed me.

"I'm on a mission, not in the Aether. Listen, Alex, you can save Herobrine if you listen. The prophet of your new civilization… You must listen… She is right..." he told me quickly, his image fading. All of a sudden, black shadowy figures rose from the ground around us, all with purple glowing eyes. They stared, and reached out at us. Notch scooped another copy of the diamond ring out of his pocket and threw it over the cliff, where I assumed it hit the water and was destroyed. At once, the dream swirled into black, and I was ejected from my subconscious.

Sitting bolt upright in bed, I touched my heart. It was beating super-fast, at a rate I wasn't too confident in being normal. My glowstone sat next to me, casting light around the new town hall. Everyone else was still asleep except for Jessica, who had propped a book up between her legs on the right side of Prae. She turned to me, eyes wide in surprise. "Alex? Are you OK?" she queried.

I nodded slowly, still feeling my pulse. I considered Notch's words. If that was the Endermen's master, then it must have had a lot of power compared to the normal Endermen. And why was Notch so frightened? He should have been able to afford a guard for the dream. After all, he was the ruler of all of Minecraftia.

Apparently not. Jessica stared over, and I nodded again in confirmation. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bad dream is all," I assured her. I looked down at my toolbelt. Maybe I should go hunting, or something.

Jessica wasn't giving up her search, though. "Dreams these days aren't just dreams, Alex. You, me, we all know that," she sighed, turning back to her book.

We sat in silence, her reading, everyone else asleep, and me trying to fall back asleep. I gave up. There was no use, especially knowing what I did now. Figuring that I would tell everyone once I got back from hunting and everyone was once again awake, I took out Monarch and walked out the door. Jessica watched in silence, not giving any opposition to my leaving.

Outside, the morning was nearing. I guessed it was sometime around five o' clock. We would need a clock in an item frame eventually. That way, we could always check more accurately than having to burn our eyes staring up at the sun or moon. I would probably get Adam to get something like that set up, since he was the only one of us who could actually operate redstone efficiently.

The cold morning air was giving me goosebumps. I walked along the frigid grass, letting it crunch under my feet. There was no way to avoid that, so I probably scared off every animal in the vicinity just like that. Still, I watched the area around me for prey. It was always nice to have more food.

After searching for a bit, I came to the conclusion that none were hanging out around our bay. Down and out, I figured, walking back around the house to the edge of the water. Reaching down and touching my finger to the water, I realized it was not that cold. Staring down closer, I watched the sand repeatedly shift, as if there was something down there. And in this area of the bay, the sand was much deeper than it was in the other areas. This led to the conclusion that it was an overflown dungeon.

Getting free stuff was always nice. I took off my shirt, leaving my bare chest cold in the breeze, and dived in. I wouldn't need Monarch out since it was underwater, so I used hands solely for propelling me under.

Having always been good at holding my breath, I easily made it down to the sand. It was darker down here, the sand having collapsed around my sides to make a pit. I began digging up the wet sand with my hands, throwing it against the walls where it would more or less stay. Searching for the chest was harder than I had expected. I dug around the sides of the chasm, until I at last touched mossy cobblestone.

Although I had hit my objective, I swam back up to the surface for a moment to catch my breath. All I had to make sure of was not to dig up the center of the dungeon, or tons of skeletons or spiders or zombies would begin to attack me. My head rose above the water, and I breathed in the sweet air. A thought passed through my mind: don't you hate that when you're wet, any kind of air made it seem like you were standing in a freezer? Sucking a bunch of air in, I dived back down underwater to finish my job.

The sand that was packed into the corners of the cobblestone walls was the hardest to dig out. It all came out though, more or less, and about halfway around the walls I found the chest. Unlatching it and pulling up the top, I quickly grabbed everything and stuffed it in my toolbelt so that it wouldn't get wet if it was food or the like. My inventory was suddenly full. My objective achieved, I kicked off the cobblestone wall and swam back up to the surface.

Exiting the water, the air blasted me once more, making me frigid and discomforted. I climbed out and collapsed briefly on the dry grass. The sun was beginning to rise to the east, which happened to be dead center in the bay from the town hall. It was pretty beautiful, and the entire sky began glowing orange and red.

I turned on my toolbelt to check what I had obtained. There hadn't really been a whole lot. Three iron ingots, four bunches of pumpkin seeds, three pieces of cocoa, and a saddle. The only way to get a saddle was to find it in dungeons like this, after all. At the thought of the saddle, I remembered Will and Timothy. They seemed so far off now, like a distant reality.

My reality right now was sitting on the grass, watching the sun rise peacefully. The mob armies wouldn't be able to get us right now, I assumed. We would have to recruit more people to help establish our new city, Novum Eboracum, after all. New York, Prae had said. I wondered exactly how long ago there had been a major city named that.

The cocoa was bitterly useless in my hands; I couldn't cook cookies, chocolate cake, or anything of the like. I still need something to do for the moment, while everyone else was still getting up. Maybe I would get my own personal chest for my supplies, considering my inventory was full and I wouldn't be able to collect anything else.

There was still the chest down in the dungeon, after all. I left my shirt on the grass, and dived down back into the water. It was still warm from the cobblestone. Maybe it had just recently cooled, or something, so lava was around. Taking out my enchanted axe, I chopped up the chest into splinters, replaced it in my tool chest, and was left holding my axe when a block of cobblestone suddenly burst apart. A jet stream of hot water blasted out, scalding my leg where the jeans were ripped. That was where my leg had been injured just a day ago. "Oh Notch," I tried to say, relieving my pain through words, but only got halfway through the speech as my mouth was immediately filled with water. After the jet stream, lava began leaking out of the hole, increasing the heat by a million. It would soon burn me.

I was about to swim back up, axe in hand, when I stopped. Trying to push off the cobblestone wall, my axe wouldn't budge. It was lodged into the wall, embedded there in the stone. Surely I wasn't going to lose an enchanted axe to some hot liquid, so I placed my legs against the wall and pulled with all my might. The lava was turning to stone, but soon the stone would float up and touch me. Honestly, it scared me to think of what kind of pain I would experience if the stone touched me.

It became apparent that I was losing air, and fast. Bubbles were quickly flowing out of my nose in tight air traps, and my skin was becoming painfully hot. At last, the axe jerked out of the mossy cobblestone, and I flew backward off of momentum. My face was turning red, and I tried to kick and swim upwards, but I couldn't. All of my energy had been completely drained. The lava was spilling over, turning into stone and blocking whatever flow there was left. But now I was in serious danger of drowning, still being a good ten meters from the surface of the bay. This was the worst kind of death: completely helpless.

As my life began fading from consciousness, something grabbed my shoulders and began to pull me up. The red of the lava faded into just a tight black oblivion of water. And suddenly, my head burst from the surface.

The morning sun had completely risen, the blue sky cast across the clouds. Quickly, my head faltered over and slammed into the dry patch of grass. Coughing and sputtering, I slowly brought my chest up to look at who had saved me. Eyes adjusting, I realized it was Prae, her brown and silver hair loose and now wet, hanging to one side. She looked striking, in a way.

"What in the world were you doing at the bottom of an ocean?" she interrogated, trying to hide her relief with anger. I could easily see past the charade, though.

"Dungeon. Thought that I might get something useful, and yes I did. And then I almost drowned and almost boiled and almost burned to death, all at the same time," I answered. For some stupid reason, my mouth twisted itself into some sickly grin.

"Are you serious? A dungeon?!" she sputtered, splashing the water with her foot. Her clothes were clinging to her body in their wet state, revealing her curves. She must have spared no time in saving me. Well, what did I think had happened? A scene played over in my head. Prae was in a swimsuit, dived into the bay, and oh, suddenly happened to find her boyfriend approaching death.

My smile widened. "Yep. I guess I owe you a thanks," I joked, and she revealed her own light hearted face.

"Yeah, and a freakin' apology," she said in a mock anger way, but she was silenced as I kissed her.

We broke apart after a few seconds, and she started laughing. There was really no reason for it, but I began to laugh with her. It went from giggles to an all-out burst of joy, and we sat there in the morning sun, laughing. It was something of a diamond in the rough.

"What's so funny, anyways?" she giggled, and I shrugged.

"I don't know, honestly. It's nice to have normal human interaction for once, though, right?" I replied, and she burst out in laughs some more.

We kissed a few times, sitting and watching the sun rise together. At some point, however, the fun had to end. I got up, threw my shirt back on, put my axe in my toolbelt in exchange for the chest, and put the chest against the town hall's outside wall. It would just be a temporary storage for me, seeing to the fact that I needed space for other things I might find.

In the chest, I stuffed in everything I could, leaving the pumpkin seeds in my belt, my torches, main tools, sword, bow and arrows, dirt, and a quarter stack of normal seeds that would grow wheat. The chest was filled with spare ores, cobblestone, wood, and other basic needs right to the top. For now, though, I was going to make a basic farm.

Stepping up to the edge of the water, I took out my old stone hoe and cultivated some of the land around me that was directly against the water. From there, I let the dirt moisten, and then planted all of the seeds that I had. Most of the farm was filled, except there was one spot that remained unplanted. Turning to Prae, I asked if she had any extra seeds.

Her answer was disconcerting. "Nope. I used most of what I had back in Fort Imperial," she told me, and I shrugged. It was just one seed.

Our musing was interrupted by everyone else coming out around the town hall and over to us. "Well, look at the lovebirds out here, planting seeds, and who knows what else," Adam commented jokingly, and that earned him a punch in the stomach from me.

"Why do you have to make yourself so unlikable, anyways?" I scolded, but there was no answer from him as he gulped for air. It seemed that one punch had completely knocked the wind out of him.

Adam stumbled away, probably going off to moan about something else that no one would ridicule him for, and we turned back to the group. "Does anyone have any seeds? We only need one more to make a basic farm, and then we'll fence it off and make it three rows long," Prae queried, and Khalida stepped forward, a raw porkchop in hand.

"Here guys! Using this we can grow a pig out of the ground," she said joyously, walking over to the unplanted soil and stuffing the piece of meat underground. She stood and brushed off her hands like she had just done something heroic. "I'm going to set up a brewing station. I've still got some nether warts, so I can brew some basic potions for us," she announced, and then left to go back through the town hall to get to the roof. The six of us left were silent for a moment, staring at the awkward piece of pork slightly jutting out of the dirt ground.

"Um… I guess I'll just throw it in the water or something," Aria shrugged, and picked up the muddy piece of meat and tossed it into the bay.

"Did she seriously think you can grow pigs out of porkchops?" Prae mused, and Jessica nodded.

"She does weird stuff like that sometimes. She reads upside down, holds sand like its gold; she's quite the odd girl," Jessica replied.

"Anyways, I think you guys were going to build the farm? I've got plenty of melon seeds and normal seeds, so I can start helping out," Skyler told us. We began to build up the farm on the edge of the water.

Because we had six people working on such a simple task, we finished after only about fifteen minutes. In the end, the farm was three rows that were each fourteen blocks long. There was water in between each row so that it would grow the fastest it possibly could. The entire farm was lined with fences to keep out stray mobs.

"OK, so what now?" Aria mused, and Remington perked up.

"Sire, you said that we shall use the water as a port, am I not correct?" he thought aloud, and I nodded aloud in confirmation. "Well, then we shall construct a house of light to alert those at sea of our presence, and invite them to accompany us in Novum Eboracum," he suggested. That was actually a pretty good idea, I figured.

"All right then. I'll just build a pillar for now, with my glowstone on top and a bunch of torches," I figured, and the others nodded in agreement.

"But how will you get back down after building the pillar?" Prae asked worriedly, and I smiled.

"There's an ocean out there, isn't there? Well, I'll just have to conquer the water again," I joked, and she made a distraught face. I went back inside the town hall to collect my glowstone so I could build the lighthouse. It would just be cobblestone, I figured, grabbing a quarter stack from my chest and also collecting my torches and armor. I left my armor off for now, though. It would only bulk me up as I tried to swim back to land.

Back inside the town hall, Adam was sitting on his bed, staring at the wall. I shrugged, figuring nothing that we ever did would be able to please him, and went over to my bed. On the opposite corner of the building was a pillar that went up to the roof with a ladder on its side. That must have been where Khalida had gone.

The block of glowstone was sitting idly against my bed. I got out my diamond pickaxe and swung down on it, shattering it into four clumps of dust that flew into my toolbelt. The glowstone had once again given me a sign of good luck. I constructed the dust quickly into a full block of glowstone, and then once more stepped outside.

The others were beginning to build another building of sorts. I walked up and asked what they were creating. "An house for us, so we all actually have individual rooms," Skyler joked. It was on the left of the town hall, so I walked off on the right side of the bay toward the edge.

Once I had reached the edge of the water, I took out my cobblestone and jumped up above the dirt block. There, I placed the cobblestone, and presumed to use the elevator method up until I was out of cobble to use and stood above the bay. In the distance, I could see figures making a large building next to the town hall, and one person on top of the town hall making some potions.

On top of the pillar, I placed four torches on each side of the cobblestone block on the very top of the pillar. Then, I jumped up and added the glowstone to the top of the pillar, finishing off the structure. It was casting light everywhere, and surely would be effective during night or a storm. Now for the part Prae had been worried about; getting down.

After making sure that I was empty handed, I pieced my arms together and dived to the side with maybe the smallest hint of grace. The air rushed past my head, and I flew into the water, causing a splash. The bubbles floated around me as I slowly drifted deeper, and I kicked up toward the top so that I wouldn't come close to drowning again.

Breaking from the surface provided me with a fresh rush of air, and I shook my head to attempt to get the water out of my eyes. There was no such luck, so I began swimming over back to the base of the pillar from the very middle of the opening in the bay.

Once I was back on land, I began walking over to the town hall. The building next to it was taking good shape. It was pretty big, and I expected it to probably have enough rooms for all of us. The six of them were finishing up the roof, and there were plenty of windows for every room. Aria and Jessica were by the front door, finishing up a sign. It read '_Home of the Imperial Battalion_'.

I stood next to them, and they hadn't noticed me. "So, are you almost done with this?" I queried, and they jumped in surprise.

"Alex! Oh, I didn't see you there," Jessica exclaimed, and then looked back at the building. "And yeah, everyone else is just finishing up the roof right now. Every floor has two rooms that are ten by ten, but they're all empty right now. You can decorate your own room, I guess. But yours is on the very top floor on the right, so you'll be overlooking the bay. The staircase is at the back of the main corridor."

I craned my neck to stare up at the top, but easily unsuccessful. I did the quick math in my head. "This thing is twenty meters tall!" I exclaimed.

"Four block high rooms for maximum comfort. And since we're the founders of Novum Eboracum, I figured that we could have our own special name, similar to the Royal Guardsmen of old. Hence the Imperial Battalion!" Aria explained.

The double doors opened, and out came Prae, Skyler, and Remington. "Hi, Alex," Prae greeted me, pecking me on the cheek. "I see you didn't kill yourself making the lighthouse."

"Well, of course he did not, my lady. My idea would never prove fatal unless intended to be!" Remington announced, and we laughed.

"Hey! Look who dragged himself out of momentary depression!" Skyler shouted, and we turned to see Adam walking slowly toward us. His backpack was slung over his shoulder.

"Where's my room? I'm going to bed," he sighed, and Aria smiled in trying to contain her laughter.

"First floor, left side, sir," she said jokingly, like a bellhop or something of the like. We laughed again.

The sun was beginning to set in the west, though, and the moon was slowly rising up above my lighthouse. We decided to go back to the town hall and take all of our things. Khalida was in there, already asleep. We decided to just leave her there as to not disturb her sleep. I collected my bed, and the seven of us trudged over to the Imperial Battalion Building, as Aria had dubbed it.

We filed into our rooms floor by floor, and at the top, Prae kissed me goodnight. "Another day, another hideout from the mobs," she sighed, and I smiled back. "'Night," I said shortly, and opened the door to my room. Above the door was a sign that read '_Alex Glowstone_'.

My room was completely bare, so I propped up my bed against the corner. Next to it was a double chest, using my old chest and the one I had acquired from the dungeon. After putting torches up around the room, placing down a spare bookcase that Khalida hadn't used for the Enchanting Room on top of the town hall, and setting up a corner with my workbench and three furnaces filled with a half stack of coal each, I walked over to my bed.

Hopefully, I prayed, I wouldn't have a weird dream this night. My lighthouse was visible through the window facing the bay, and I slowly drifted into sleep.

**It's official: New York is back after two hundred years in the form of Novum Eboracum. So there's that.**

** What was with Notch's distress in his link with Alex? Who was he talking about when he said 'she'? And how will the gang end up saving Herobrine… if they do? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia.**


	24. The Imperial Battalion

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** I apologize for the late release of Chapter 24. I was going to release it last night, and then realized that there was a small plot hole near the end. So revising, and then betaing... And here we are.**

** So yeah. That's cool and all, but we don't get a shirtless Alex this chapter. All the girls reading TPoM just let out a little groan that their little brother looked suspiciously over at her for.**

** Seriously, though. Today, FullMoonFlygon released a team picture of Alex, Jessica, and all the OCs that now make up the Imperial Battalion. NOW. Not always, but now. So go check that out on DeviantArt.**

** Also, super important! The Black Ops II Zombies trailer came out today and it looks interesting. The map has been confirmed to be called 'Tranzit', and it is more open world than anything we have ever seen before. So that is really exciting, of course. Go watch the trailer. There's some new A7X to be heard as well during it.**

** I don't really have that much news this chapter. So that means that it's on to the review responses!**

**Shayor****: I did make New York, but only because Chicago is actually an Native American name and I couldn't find a Latin translation for it. Bummer.**

**VA842867****: I try to write them as fast as I can, so your appreciation is appreciated like a true appreciator would appreciate.**

**Exb756****: Maybe he's a naughty boy because he's roughly based off of me. And I'm going to review Gone very soon. I just can't find the time for it. But once I finish the latest chapters, then I'll review routinely. Because you deserve it. :D**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: Cool your jets, woman. We're off to save him very soon, now.**

**Night wl****: That was… a very long review, considering you didn't double space like me.**

**SPACEMAN NEXUS****: Thanks for your support! Donate here to make my arm feel better!**

**Sea of Fire****: Hopefully they are temporary. A lifetime without sugar is something to be very scared of, my friend.**

**PigeonFligher****: Meh. I don't really care for New York as New York, but rather just for being New York. That didn't make any sense. But no Empire State building. If anything, there will be a Sears Tower. (Not Willis, you jerks!)**

**MinecrafterRin****: I think you might be bit obsessive….**

**FullMoonFlygon****: How could you name the ship? We're both doomed from when Flu reviews again! And I've actually got quite a six-pack from football. So Alex would have one too, supposedly. Thanks again for the team picture, though! It's awesome! And yes. Remember Flippers?**

**byJiggle****: Of course you can use his name! It's not copyrighted or anything, so you can go right ahead.**

**SimonStormCloak****: Keep on going indeed!**

**Ptrip3****: How ironic, I suppose. And thanks for your support!**

**Creepers rock****: Sorry, but that wouldn't be fair, you didn't even submit to the contest….**

**Thefinalhero7000****: Oh. Sorry, your friend.**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 24**

**The Imperial Battalion**

I woke the next morning without having dreamed of anything whatsoever. Nights like these seemed scarce these days with the constant link between me and Notch or Herobrine. As I laid in bed in the morning, I pondered the link that Notch had established with me the night before. It was very odd how he could not have gotten a guard for the link that he had established.

What really concerned me was the fact that Notch had tried to tell me something important, and it was cut off. The prophet was right for once, he had warned me. But wouldn't that mean he was talking about Khalida? She was always wrong with her visions, and that was why Adam called her Loopy in the first place. And she had been wrong about Mt. Wolfpack, hadn't she?

The moon was lowering itself below the endless sea out my window. I stared out at it, watching as my lighthouse's range faltered against the sun's rays of light. The water below me sparkled in the early morning hours, and in the distance I could vaguely see a small island.

My room in the new Imperial Battalion building was considerably plain. The walls were made of oak wooden planks, and one two layer windows faced the west and north. It was nice to be on the very top floor, getting a bird's eye view of the entire settlement. Then again, I was the leader of everyone who had come here.

Opening the door to the hallway on the top floor, I thought about what Khalida could possibly be right about. Surely she hadn't said anything important yet, or we would have noticed. In the hallway, I stared at the door to Prae's room. She hadn't awakened from sleep yet, as the door was still closed like it had been last night and the torches in her room weren't ignited. Figuring someone might be awake down in the town hall, which would serve as some sort of meeting place, I began climbing down the stairs to the bottom floor.

Outside, the air was hot and sticky. It was late June, after all. By this time, the kids in Imperial Plains would have finished their school year, and been left two and a half months to fool around during summer break. This would've been my last summer break had there been no Raid of the Endermen. Unfortunately, this was not possible.

I walked across the dry grass to the town hall. On the top of the town hall was a wooden wall that enveloped around half of it. This must have been where Khalida had set up her enchanting room and potions. After examining it from below, I stepped through the door to the town hall.

Inside, it looked very much a different place than it had yesterday afternoon. At the very back of the room was a long stone table with eight chairs set up behind it. Aligned across the entire hall were at least thirty other chairs that were all facing the long table in the back. Setting up the chairs were Aria, Jessica, and Adam. Remington was standing to the side, watching with his armor on and diamond sword leaning against the wall on his side.

Everyone turned to me as I entered, and I raised an eyebrow at the new appearance of the room. "What is all of this?" I asked skeptically, and Jessica stepped up to explain.

"We came up with this idea that if we were going to be recruiting more people, we would need a place to have town meetings to alert the common people of the events of the city," she explained, beckoning to all the makeshift wooden chairs. "And this place was called the town hall, so I figured that there wasn't any better place to do it."

I looked around at everything, taking it all in. "Well, there's no point in saying that you guys are certainly early risers," I acknowledged, smiling in acceptance. This had been a good idea, but there was still the concern of when the people were actually going to start showing up.

"How many chairs are going to have up?" I queried, and this time Aria answered.

"We're thinking of starting with fifty. There shouldn't be more people than that for a while. After all, we aren't sending out our position through broadcasting or something," she told me. This flattered me.

"Maybe we could, somehow..." I muttered, thinking of an idea. We could use a beacon if we had the materials, but everything in that recipe was extremely rare; obsidian, nether stars, you name it. Shrugging off the subject, Aria handed me a couple chair, which I began placing down in rows of seven, with the row in very back having eight chairs.

Once we had finished, which didn't really take that long, Skyler and Prae had walked through the door into the town and helped with the last couple seats. After that, we had finished setting up the town as we needed to. Everything else, as some people say, was just icing on the cake.

An elaborate discussion began on what we should start working on next. We had the town hall ready, our own home ready, a lighthouse for incoming ships, and a farm for food of many different varieties. While Adam was suggesting we make a minecart system at some point, Khalida burst through the door to the town hall.

I jumped a little in surprise, and shifted my gaze to the distressed looking girl. The many different beads in her hair had tangled up, making what looked like a messy bundle of fur. "The spirits have told me that it is bad luck for me to be working atop the town hall!" she shrieked, and then hurried up the ladder. This was followed by the sounds of picks and axes chopping various things up.

"Loopy…" I heard Adam say under his breath, and I turned back to everyone. "OK, I guess we won't be having an enchanting room above the town hall anymore. Can someone go and help her set it up in a new building?" I proposed, and Aria stepped forward, taking out an iron axe and climbing up the ladder to Khalida.

"Anyway, I was thinking that we could make a minecart transportation at some point, if the city gets larger. We can walk right now, I guess, but I've got plenty of redstone from Will's old room," Adam finished, sneering at us.

A series of shrugs followed this. "I guess so," Jessica said, but dismissed the subject with a wave of her hand. "It isn't really important right now."

"We should start a mine at some point," Skyler suggested, and this got some positive response as well. It was voted that we would begin looking for a decent cave to start a mine for resources when Khalida slid down the ladder and bounded outside, humming a barely audible song. Aria followed, and at the bottom, she turned to us. "Guys. You should come and see this."

We followed her outside, where walked over to the bay's farm. Pulling up to the bay's opening was a fairly large ship. It had Aether Clouds as masts like the flying ships in the Nether, but it was sailing toward us through the water. The hull was a dark wood, and the crow's nest was occupied by a man. We couldn't see what was happening on the deck, but it was certain that the ship was headed toward our port.

"Looks like we have our first recruits," Prae commented as we all stared at the boat. Except for Khalida, of course, who was busy constructing a cobblestone floor in the dirt next to the town hall.

Our group hurried over to the edge of bay, where the ship had stopped. The rudder was jammed, it seemed, and the large boat was in a standstill just in front of the opening to the bay. A single man looked down at us over the side of the railing. His chin was lined with stubble as it rested on the edge of the wooden railing.

"Hello, fellow humans! Boy, are we glad to see you," the man shouted down at us from about ten meters up above our dirt standing point. He shifted his gaze down at our small establishment, and back down at us, his short brown hair flopping carelessly in between his head's different positions.

I stepped up from our group of seven, assuming myself as the leader. "Um, how can we help you, sir?" I called up to him, and he threw his head back in a partially forced laugh.

"My friend, I was hoping that no one would ever have to answer that question again!" he chuckled, gesturing down at me. "What we need, hmm. Food, water, shelter, a good friendship. There are many things needed in the wake of this disaster, sir!"

I laughed a little at the man's joke, and then looked back at the ship. It was floating about five blocks from the edge of the bay, as if it were waiting for something. "So, why are you stopped here?" I asked him.

He furrowed his brow, as if confused for a second. Then he started smiling again, as if he had been thinking and had resolved a conflict. "Well, you don't have a dock yet, so we can't exactly park the ship anywhere. If you could just build one in a hurry, then we could dock and start helping you guys with whatever you're doing," he explained.

The request was simple enough. We just needed to build up wooden plank walkway and attach a stick to the end of it so that the ship could rope in. I could use a spare bit of fence from the farm yesterday that we hadn't used, I figured. Our group of seven hurried over to the end of the bay near the farm, and next to the farm, built a walkway four blocks wide that stuck out twenty blocks into the water, five more meters than the ship's actual length. At the front corner that was facing the ocean, I placed down the one piece of fence that acted as a makeshift anchor once the ship floated up and attached a line of string to it.

Once we had finished, which only took about five minutes, we hurried back to the edge of the port and gave the man the go-ahead. He gave us a salute and disappeared, and a few seconds later the rudder slid itself out of its idle position and the boat began sailing into the bay.

It passed the lighthouse, and as it sailed farther away, we could see who was on the hull of the deck. Vaguely, but still. The man who had requested we build him a docking station was at the wheel of the ship. An older, bald man with a scruffy white beard and a cane lying next to the chair he was sitting in was directly next to the captain. There were two women at the railings of the ship, both in their mid-twenties, letting their hair flow out behind them in the wind and the ocean's spray. Lastly, in the crow's nest was a man their age, with black hair that waved down his neck, but didn't envelop past his ears.

The rudder of the vast boat once again jammed itself, although this time, the ship was parked next to the walkway that we had hastily built next to the farm. The two women appeared over the edge of the railing and threw down a long string that was connected to the ship somewhere. Adam caught the end of it and tied it in a loop around the lone piece of fence.

The ship stopped moving all together after this, and the entire crew came over to the railing. An opening in the railing appeared, and the man who was captaining the ship and the man who had been in the crow's nest hefted a large wooden walkway over. Sliding it down the side of the ship, it finally touched our dock, and they bolted down the top of it.

Just like that, we had a navy of sorts. The crew walked down the walkway to the dock, where the rest of us waited. The captain strutted out in the lead, and the older man hobbled down in the rear, supported by his wooden cane. It was quite an assortment of laborers.

"I never did catch your name," I greeted the captain as he walked up to me. We shook hands, his fingers firm and trusting.

He flashed me another grin, showing off his surprisingly white teeth. "Michael Waters, former Royal Guardsman of Mt. Wolfpack. 'Round here, though, they just call me Mike. The city went to hell of course, so I got out while I could," he answered.

"Yeah, we know about the uprising," Skyler acknowledged. He shifted a little uncomfortably. "I was appointed a knight of the city the day before it."

Mike turned back to him, studying him up and down. "Well, I say. If it isn't Skyler Spade himself," he grinned, flicking some of his brown hair out his field of vision. "I think it's safe to say I didn't expect to find you anywhere after you left."

Skyler's face reddened, almost like he was pitying himself for being recognized. "Yeah. I just met these guys in the field, and we got back to the city the day before the riots began."

Mike's face darkened, and I was a little taken aback by his sudden personality change. He stepped up to Skyler, staring him right in the eye, his brown ones squinting in what appeared to be a form of hatred. "Well, listen here, Spade. It's people like you that caused our city to go under in the first place," he growled menacingly. Skyler kept the gaze locked, and then broke away. He stalked off, fists clenched, and off to help Khalida.

Mike watched him go away, and then turned back to us, smiling once more. "Well, we got out of Mt. Wolfpack, like I said. I'd always had a knack for sailing, so we stole one of the ships that was still intact and got out of there along the Frostbite River, which took us out to sea. There had to be a port somewhere, I told my crew, and alas, I was correct!" he explained delightfully, putting some extra emphasis on that last word.

I resumed, pretending not to notice his incident with Skyler. I would have to ask him about it later. "Anyways, we had a fort a while back, and it got invaded by the mob armies. So Skyler led us back to Mt. Wolfpack where we took refuge with the mayor. And then, less than twenty four hours later, the city went to hell. So we got out here and picked this spot to start a new settlement," I continued, gesturing at the buildings that we had built over the last two days.

"And what makes you think that everyone has to settle here under your rule?" Mike queried rudely, even though he said it like it was just another question.

"Because I'm the Chosen One, picked by Notch himself to stop the Raid of the Endermen," I retorted, affected by the rude question even though Mike himself didn't know of it's true meaning.

Mike furrowed his brow once more at this new information. "So you're the subject of the Prophecy of Minecraftia?" he interrogated, and I subtly nodded. At this, he grinned his widest grin yet and seemed to almost jump out of his shoes in delight. "This is splendid! You are considering to let me join you and defeat those bastards, right?"

I stopped for a second. He did seem pretty eager to do so. "I suppose so," I said, and he smiled.

"This is truly amazing, oh Notch yes. You don't mind if my crew and I go and set up a building for us to sleep in, do you?" he asked, and nodded once more. Mike led his four friends past us and down the dirt road to a small plot next to the Imperial Battalion building.

The six of us that remained on the dock stared over the water at the new settlers of Novum Eboracum. "What do you think of them?" Prae asked me from my side.

I slipped my hand into hers. "I don't know what he was talking about with Skyler. But more people _is_ a good thing to have."

**TPoM**

"Who exactly was that guy?"

Skyler didn't turn to face me with his answer. Instead, he remained picking at some grass next to a cave entrance he had found. It had been about fifteen minutes, and I had found him by the small sinkhole that was lined with stone and coal and descended into the depths below.

"You know…. Michael Waters," he muttered, balling his fist and opening it again, revealing a wad of grass that was crushed into one piece.

I stood over him, watching as he dropped the grass into the cave. It had been solidified so much under the pressure of his hand that it actually made a thumping sound as it rolled down into the ground. "You and I both know that he wasn't just another survivor. He knew you, and that's pretty obvious. And, from the way you're reacting, I'd say that you knew him too," I told him.

Skyler shot up out of his sitting position and pointed his finger to my face. "You have no idea who he is, and you don't really care, either! Besides, why should I tell you? You're just a kid who just got his freakin' name!" he spat, red eyes ablaze with fury. I backed off slightly.

"You don't understand what it's like to be an adult. Hell, you don't even know what it's like to be the underdog at all! Life is hard, kid, and if someone tells you to leave them alone, you better leave them alone!" he continued, now in a blind fury of sorts.

Was that really what Skyler thought of me? Just another kid who happened to survive the attacks? I didn't realize that I had begun shaking in anger. "Skyler, I just want to know who this guy is and why you don't like him! I'm not asking you to sacrifice your life for me," I retorted.

Both of us were breathing hard, and I continued softly. "Look, I don't want to fight with anyone that I have to live with. But I need to know if there's anything off about everyone because everyone in Novum Eboracum has your back, Prae's back, and mine," I said, closing the subject. Or, at least, I thought so. Turning around, Skyler spoke up again.

"I knew him from school. I wasn't exactly what you'd call popular, though. Mike, though, he was a rock star. Everyone loved him for his personality, always happy, always encouraging, always cracking funny jokes." When I turned back to Skyler, he was sitting with his legs draping over the mine like he had when I first found him.

"Back then, I was what you might call a dork. Everyone was thirteen years old, after all, so you were either in or out," he continued. I could relate to that, although I had been more in the middle back in Imperial Plains. "Bookworm, geek, nerd. Whatever you would call that kind of person. I was constantly reading the latest novel, and everyone thought I would be a politician of sorts when people were looking at what jobs everyone would have.

"And yet, inside of me, I was a monster fighter. Wielding a sword just felt right when the time came for it in gym classes and survival classes. I stayed behind in the classes, figuring that when the time came in the Reckoning Day tests I would shine in that. People classified how good you were based on your public sessions in those classes, and I wanted to stay under the radar.

"Mike, of course, was great at the fighting classes. Coming into the thirteen year of school, he had established himself as the most popular kid in Mt. Wolfpack. Me, I was a different story. That year, he started to pick on me for no reason. I had never even acknowledged that I could possibly be cooler than him. But, that's what people do, I guess. It's in human nature.

"I just got fed up with it after a while. It was May, and the school year was almost over. The bastard ruined my birthday in April with an expert piston trap. There was a fighting class near the end of the year that was essentially a week long tournament. I was so pissed at the world that I actually tried to fight for once. I ended up getting to the finals against Mike himself.

"Everyone was laughing at the prospect of it. I'm guessing that a lot of money changed hands in his favor. And I showed up with my wooden sword, as that was what we had to use in school fights, and ended up beating him. I don't want to brag, but I crushed him, really. The popular kids, they don't take that kind of stuff lightly. So Mike made it part of his goals in life to completely embarrass me.

"After Reckoning Day, we had both been chosen as Royal Guardsmen. I beat him again, but this time in the ranking of the Guardsmen. This thoroughly embarrassed him, and he was humbled in a way. But he still didn't like me, that was for sure. After five years, when the debate on whether Royal Guardsmen should go out as scouts in the wild to find survivors like your group, I had been favoring it. Mike had been against it, and sided with the majority of people in the city. But I guess that his hatred for me was sparked again by that, as he showed when he and his group got here just now," Skyler finished, still staring down into the depths of the earth.

The entire explanation had been very thoughtful and thought out, I figured. Skyler had definitely proved trustworthy, so I believed his story. He turned around and stood up, looking me in the eye. "What do you think?"

I mulled over this proposal. "It just boggles me that a guy that cheerful on the outside can be so bitter within," I shrugged. Skyler nodded sadly at this.

"I suppose that it's just people these days, right?" he sighed. This, at least, was definitely a true fact. "Let's go back. I'd like to propose an alliance with him, especially since we have to live in the same town again."

With that, the two of us began walking back to the buildings again. Once we were there, the city looked a little bit different than it had before. Khalida's new enchanting and brewing building was finished, although it had no windows and looked vaguely glum inside. There were torches that glowed creepily on the outsides of the walls, and Skyler and I walked past it hurriedly.

On the left of the Imperial Battalion building was now a shorter one, with a very similar design except only three floors tall. The entire group was waiting outside of the town hall for my return, and I stepped up with Skyler at my side.

"Alex," Prae said, calling my attention to her. "We were thinking to have a town meeting of sorts to get acquainted with the new arrivals. We can go into the town hall, I guess, since that was what it was built for," she proposed, and I answered with a yes.

While we were talking, Skyler walked up to Mike, and told him something barely audible. The two stared each other down for a few seconds, and then shook hands in a grave fashion. Mike resumed grinning after this, said something, and Skyler began smiling as well. Maybe, I thought, it could be a friendly rivalry of sorts.

Our group of thirteen people filed into the city hall. The eight people who had been here first and had made up the Imperial Battalion sat at the table in the back that faced everyone else. The crew that had come with the ship this morning sat in the first row. I watched everyone from the center right of the table, sitting in between Remington and Prae.

Since we weren't exactly that big of a town yet, it didn't take long for everyone to settle down. Once everyone was seated and quiet, and began the meeting.

"Hello, fellow settlers of Novum Eboracum. I know that we're small right now, but hopefully the town can gain leverage while staying balanced and ready for a mob attack," I began, sweeping my head all over the room. It was odd that I was finding the unscripted public speaking so easy. That had never really been my thing.

"As you all should know by now, I'm Alex Glowstone. I don't want to brag or anything, but I'm the one who is supposed to defeat the Endermen with my friends because of my last name. So you all have been given a good opportunity of sorts by meeting me.

"What you need to know is this is now a permanent settlement. For now, we want to keep it really organized so that we don't have any security threats. I think that we all know how that got out of hand in Mt. Wolfpack and essentially destroyed the city.

"Us up here at the table in front are the Imperial Battalion. We are what stand as just and right in our city, and the eight of us will carry out missions to try to prevent the Raid of the Endermen once and for all. Are there any objections to who is enlisted with the Imperial Battalion?" I finished, looking at everyone in the room. "Speak now, or forever hold your peace."

Everyone was silent for a few moments until Adam raised his hand. I turned to him, as he was sitting all the way on the other side of the table on the left. "Adam?" I said, giving him the go ahead to begin talking.

"I would like to step down, actually. I'm not really good at fighting, and I'm kind of scared of Endermen. And skeletons, too. But the point is, I would be more valuable here in the town where I could build and make redstone stuff, because I'm sure that no one here is better than me at that," he explained, staring around at everyone to see if there were any objections.

"And, you're the most humble out of all of us, too," Jessica retorted. If looks could kill….

Remington stared down Adam because of his hostile look. "See know, sir,

"BUT if there is someone from the party that came today, I would gladly step down to offer them my spot in the group," Adam finished, cutting off Remington and averting his gaze from Jessica only briefly.

Mike stepped up from his seat below the table. "I guess that I can join up. If you accept me, at least," he acknowledged, flashing a grin at me. I remembered what Skyler had told me about him, and then remembered that they had held off their rivalry. For now.

"I suppose so-" I began, only to be cut off myself.

"WAIT! I can see it! The place we need to go!" Khalida cried from the other edge of the table. Her normally brown eyes were glowing purple, and she was casting a purple light from her mouth.

"What's that?!" I queried, and one of the women from the crew answered.

"She is an Oracle, right? She's about to see a vision, something really important. But when this happens, Oracles are never wrong," she shouted back to me over the ringing noise that the beams of light were making. Whatever was happening, it was very intense.

I got up from my seat and walked over to her. Was Khalida even conscious of her body right now? "Khalida?" I said uncertainly, and reached out to touch her arm. She was slowly floating up from her seat, and her chair fell backward. I hopped over it and accidentally brushed her arm.

The last thing I heard was Prae's scream. "Alex!"

Everything went black.

**Well, what a cliffhanger! I normally don't do these as my stories usually follow the day-night cycle, but whatever. It's good to fit one of these in every once in a while.**

** What prediction will Khalida make? What exactly happened to Alex? And will Mike Waters prove effective as part of the Imperial Battalion? Find out next time, only in The Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	25. Novum Eboracum

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** I originally had a different name for this chapter, but then I realized that it was stupid and boring and kind of created a plot hole. So, here is Novum Eboracum!**

** Great news everyone: I bought the Clockwork Angels novelization! To those of you who don't know what that is, I shun you. :D**

** I have a survey for you guys, now. I want all of you to try and answer every question, please. It will really help with me as I close out the last half of the story.**

**How do you feel about the Earth side story, and does it detract or supplement the story?**

**Are you in favor of the OCs that have been picked? If not, which ones do you not like to be in the story?**

**What are your suspicions about Mike Waters and his comrades?**

**Will you read the sequel and/or prequel to TPoM?**

** OK, thanks guys. I would really appreciate it if you answered these in detail, as every little piece of feedback helps a lot. And now, it's time for the review responses!**

**FullMoonFlygon****: I just lost five brain cells reading that pun. And I don't know about Mike Waters… Maybe I MEANT to do that. And I'm putting in all of the updates and snapshots as they come out to try and keep it up to date. And submitting an Oracle was definitely a good idea… And thank you so much for the note in the 200****th**** review! I made a screalup in the middle of reading it!**

**MinecrafterRin****: Seriously man, just check every once in a while. It's OK if you don't read it as soon as it comes out.**

**Sea of Fire****: Oh, well, I'm sorry. I guess.**

**Exb756****: I'm going to hope that she didn't explode. Oh, wait, I can make that happen. :D And I love Aria, Jessica, and Remington on it. They just look exactly I how I imagined them when she drew them.**

**N00blord****: Can you please take the time to show what your random, odd comments are implying? Thank you…**

**SimonStormCloak****: I don't like the rivalry. I just wanted Mike to have a background of sorts, and the previous acquaintance with Skyler seemed like a good idea.**

**Ptrip3****: No comment.**

**VA842867****: Fear no more, it is here!**

**Mellifluousness****: (Insert plane ticket to New Zealand and a mock slap to Flu's face here) SHUT UP! O_o But anyways, I probably messed up on that. Whatever, I never make mistakes. I just can't get cocky.**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: Thank you so much!**

**Night wl****: I decided to do a cliffhanger indeed. I'm so devious.**

**PigeonFligher****: It is quite stereotypical, so why should I have gone against the flow? And your review was actually quite mid-sized, not short.**

**Creepers rock****: Sorry! :D**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 25**

**Novum Eboracum**

A tingling sensation spread across my entire body. My eyes saw only black, and my ears heard a strange ambience. There was beeping, and the pounding of waves against an alien shore. What exactly had Khalida done to me?

Then, just as sudden as it had started, my feet found ground. I stumbled a little bit, not expecting to have to stand ever again. In the wake of my footing, I slipped and fell over to the cold stone floor. It was obvious now that I was somewhere other than the town hall, as it had a wooden floor. After all, something as weird as this was sure to have consequences.

Unfortunately for me, I knew next to nothing about Oracles and what happened when they made a prophecy. Sitting on the stone floor, I realized how hypocritical that fact was. Khalida had been about to make a prophecy and I touched her. This could not be good, even though I had no idea what would happen.

Slowly, I stood up. My footsteps from regaining my footing echoed across the floor. I took a moment to take in my surroundings. The world seemed to be an endless white sky that stretched around to make walls of silk. The first thing that crossed my mind was that this must be some sort of oblivion. What stood in front of me was just emptiness.

I began to walk. There was no point in staying in one place, after all. There had to be something here, something I could use to get back to the Overworld. Footsteps loud and strangely magnified, I began my way across the stone floor.

After what seemed like two minutes, the white sky began taking a form. The stone floor turned into grass, the sky began graying, and plants began sprouting up around me. Everything was white, black, or a shade of gray, though. Except for my body, of course.

This at least was better than an oblivion. The grass waved like it was in a gale, even though I myself could not feel any wind. The plants meant that the world was developing, I guess, so I must have been making progress. Even so, I was about to give up hope when I finally heard a distant humming.

My head swerved to the left, surveying a gray field in front of me. I few dozens of meters away was Khalida, twirling around in her multi-colored skirt and humming a little loudly and obnoxiously. There were small black and white butterflies swirling around her.

"Khalida!" I shouted, and she stopped, her braids taking an abrupt stop in mid-swing. She raised an eyebrow, searching for the source of my voice, and looked over at me.

"Oh! Alex, is that really you?" she cried, and began wandering across the hilly field toward me. "I don't like it here that much, there isn't any color at all except for you and me. Although I do like these little critters. Say hello, butterflies!" she told me, slightly hyperventilating. This was one of those moments where you understood Adam's grudge.

"Yeah, it's really me," I replied, glancing around at the odd world around us. "You were going to make a prophecy, weren't you? Have you seen anything important here?"

Khalida's smile faltered a little bit. "I saw a building for a few seconds back in the town hall, but now we're here and I don't see anything except for the world around us now. It's weird, though, because normally my visions are clear expressions and images of something, like Mt. Wolfpack in flames. For example, this one kid I knew in New Copenhagen is being attacked by zombies as we speak," she answered.

Frustrated, I kicked the ground at my feet. I should've known not to try and interact with her while she was making a prophecy. Now, I had absolutely no idea where we were supposed to go. "C'mon, Khalida. Let's just keep on walking."

We continued along the gray grass plain. Slowly, the vegetation grew in intensity until we were wandering above white roses that sprouted out of the grass. This couldn't be real. Unless it was what Notch had called Earth, although I doubted that.

After a lot of walking, the grass that we were walking on formed into a dirt path, and Khalida spoke again, but not in her normal voice. "_To save the god we call the Guardian of the Nether, we must join hands and travel across the sea together._"

I looked over at her. Her eyes were purple again, but the color faded soon after she finished that line. "What was that?" I asked, and she raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't say anything. Unless I said the first part of the prophecy. Oracles aren't conscious of when they come up with them, I'm pretty sure," she responded.

The dirt path began to curve around a tree, and on the other side was a large dome shaped building. "_An island to the west labeled to be myth, the key to discovering those who come from the Fifth,_" she continued. The temple loomed above us, sparkling with white light that probably would have been very bedazzling had there been color in the dream.

"_A forgotten temple in ruin rests there, the new home of the Overworld's new heir._"

We entered the temple through two grand doors, and were blinded by a bright light. Everything was darker inside, even though it had seemed so bright on the outside. The room was littered with destroyed furniture and the like. A shadow walked out from behind a shattered globe of an odd looking planet and stared at us. It was shaped like an Enderman, it's eyes white instead of purple in this colorless world.

"_To learn of our world's origins, the Chosen One will be floored. The Battalion must travel to the Temple of the Overworld._"

And just like that, the world faded away.

**TPoM**

I lay on my bed in my room atop the Imperial Battalion building. My hands were resting behind my head on the pillow, making me look like I was relaxing on a beach or something. In reality, I was in deep thought.

Three days had passed since Khalida had given her first prophecy. It obviously wasn't as important as the one concerning me, but rather, it gave us the go-ahead on how to save Herobrine. The Guardian of the Nether. If that wasn't referring to him, then I had no idea what could. And I was sure that everyone else felt the same way.

What had happened was that I entered Khalida's subconscious while she was creating the prophecy inside of her head. Those four lines that she had given were it, it seemed, as the others told me that that was all she said once we were both awakened in the town hall.

It was safe for me to say that I was never going to interfere with an Oracle ever again. Khalida herself was in a sort of shock, though, as apparently that kind of thing took a lot of effort.

Wow, I thought to myself. If Khalida's still in shock over four lines, then what had happened to whoever made my prophecy? But Khalida had been voted out of the Imperial Battalion for now so that she could recover and stay at the city if she had another prophecy. One of the girls who had come with Mike Waters, Clara Wool, had been voted in to fill in for her.

The prophecy had caused a lot of discussion amongst everyone. It was speaking of an island out to the western sea housing the Temple of the Overworld. That was a mythological building said to house the origins of the world we live in. And it would make sense, considering that Herobrine had been trapped in the Temple of the Nether. All three, including the Aether, were linked with portals. So Herobrine was either there, or we would have to continue to a different Realm. I was hoping for the former.

In the three days, a lot more groups of people had arrived to Novum Eboracum. The population of the city was pushing fifty, and I was surprised to find that so many people had found their way here. It couldn't have been a coincidence. Nevertheless, people were people and the world now was a place where the less numbers you had, the weaker you were.

The new arrivals had begun to build small houses around the port. The building that the group that came with Mike Waters had built was taken down, and instead everyone outside the Imperial Battalion got their own house. The Imperial Battalion, of course, staying in the building we had made when we first got here.

In three days, though, it had gone under renovation. The corner blocks that stretched down all the way to the ground had been replaced with normal logs instead of wooden planks to make the building more unique. Jessica had been the main advocate for this at a town meeting, saying that she would rather be part of Herobrine's Zombie Pigman army before she lived in a wooden box. The motion was carried 8-0.

Unfortunately, no one else had arrived on a ship from Mt. Wolfpack, leaving us with the one that we would be using to head out to the Temple of the Overworld. Instead, a group of construction workers from New Copenhagen that had somehow stumbled across Novum Eboracum had begun to work on a second ship, although no one had the Aether Cloud required for the masts. For now, it seemed we would have to make do with what we had.

The thought of how many people were actually here overwhelmed me as I sat on my bed. Over fifty people in a town that I had started. That was something unheard of, especially after the commercial success of Mt. Wolfpack, New Copenhagen, and Imperial Plains. Then again, all three of those had been destroyed. With some surprise, I realized that this was probably the largest establishment left in the Overworld that was actually active with people.

We had renovated the lighthouse, as well. In one of the parties that came two days ago, there had been a former tailor who still had tons of wool. We died some of it red, and made the lighthouse more traditionally stereotypical with the red and white spiral that went to the top. The block of glowstone was inside a glass box about fifteen meters up from the ground now, the glass amplifying it's range. All we needed now was a beacon to go on the very top.

Right now, it was early morning. My torches were on, signifying that I was awake to the entire city, since my room and Prae's were the tallest point in the whole town and our windows were easily visible. My pillow had stiffened, and I was suddenly bored after recapping the past three day's events in my head. What was on the agenda today?

First of all, we had to get the iron armor ready for Mike and Clara. They both already had diamond swords, but everyone in the Imperial Battalion was supposed to be decked out in flashy iron armor. It wasn't supposed to actually be flashy, but iron armor certainly was useful.

Second, we had to assign a group of people to begin a mine. We really hadn't explored the one that Skyler had found the other day too much, only using it to get cobblestone at the surface in order to build houses for the large amount of people that were now living here. We would need iron for blacksmiths, and certainly a lot more stone than we had actually attempted to collect. And there was always a need for diamonds, wasn't there?

Though Prae and I had only discussed it in private, once these things were done, we had decided that today was the day that the Imperial Battalion set sail to save Herobrine. And whatever was next in my story. Because surely saving Herobrine wasn't the end of it. We needed to get the six blaze rods for good, though.

There was a slight knocking on my door. Enough to get my attention, but quiet enough that it wouldn't disturb anyone. I jumped out of bed and hurried over to open the door. Standing there was Prae, and she brushed back her brown hair absent-mindedly.

"I need you to help me with something," she whispered, as to not wake anyone else. I looked out my window. I surely wasn't hallucinating or anything. It was probably earlier than four o' clock in the morning.

Still, it was Prae asking. "Yeah, sure. What do you need?" I said back in a hushed voice.

"Do you still have those cocoa beans from the dungeon that you found?" she queried.

"The one I would've died in had it not been for you? Yes, they should be in one of my chests," I replied, and the two of us ducked back inside of my room. I shut the door and walked over to my personal chest, and began searching through it to find what I was looking for.

My hands grasped around the three bundles of chocolate. Picking them up in my hands and pushing the lid to the chest closed, I turned back to Prae. She was sitting on my bed, staring at me as I walked back over. I handed her the bundles of cocoa beans and sat down next to her.

"So today's the day," she mused, and I nodded somberly. It would definitely feel odd going off on a mission again, like we had in Fort Imperial back when Anna and Will were still alive. Those days seemed like they were forever ago, even though it had only been a little more than a week since we had come back from the Nether.

"What do you think of the prophecy?" I queried, and she shrugged in response.

"I really can't put my finger on it, but it worries me that Khalida is making prophecies now. It shouldn't be a problem, after all, it should be a good thing. But having an Oracle in such close quarters making prophecies about us performing a task… It just doesn't feel normal, do you know what I mean?" she said.

I sat there for a few moments without responding, thinking over what she had said. Every time I thought about Khalida, though, it brought me back to the dream with Notch that he had struggled to communicate with me in. Figuring that Prae deserved to know, I began to tell her about it.

"Do you know anything about a dragon?" I questioned, and Prae brushed some hair out from in front of her eye behind her ear. "I'm serious, though. They don't really exist, do they?"

Prae made a thoughtful face as she wondered. "There are too many myths to count about them. Red dragons that roamed the Overworld in times before Minecraftia was settled in any kind of organized manner. There were a few stories about mutated mobs that became dragons of sorts, but those stories never mentioned any specifics."

I shook my head in frustration. "No, I mean a black dragon. Not red, or a mutated bat or anything like that. A black dragon with purple eyes."

Prae raised an eyebrow. "Like an Enderman? Why would there be a dragon with attributes similar to an Enderman?"

"The other night, Notch visited me in another dream. I was on a cliff above the ocean, and Notch hinted about Khalida being right. I didn't know he was talking about her at the time, but that's pretty obvious now. But there was a black dragon in the dream, and Notch said it wasn't part of the dream that he had made to visit me in. He hadn't had a guard, and he had to leave quickly because there were Endermen intruding the link between us. But the dragon…. He said he had created it a long time ago, and that it didn't exist anymore or something of the like. And that it was the ruler of the Endermen. But if that thing could slip into our dream undetected and minutes before the Endermen showed up, then what exactly are we facing?" I explained, voicing out the entire dream in a shorter, condensed way.

Prae was silent as I told her about the dream, and screwed up her face trying to think about what I had said afterwards. "I honestly don't know of anything like that. Maybe it Notch had it locked up somewhere, and that's how the Endermen are coming up again; it somehow is able to create them from wherever it is trapped and begin to build the army that they are. But from what you tell me in your dream, it sounds like it might even be stronger than Notch himself."

She scratched her head, still trying to make sense of it all, but then shook her head. "Anyway, thanks for the cocoa beans," she told me.

We stood from my bed, and at the door I pecked her on the cheek. "What do you need them for, anyways?" I asked, and she smiled a little bit.

"Tomorrow's the 24th of June, right? I'm making a chocolate cake for Jessica. It's her birthday," she replied.

I grinned back. Cake was hard enough to make by itself, but a chocolate cake was really hard to make. Personally, I had absolutely no idea how good Prae could possibly be at making a pastry like that. "And how exactly will you pull that one off?" I chuckled.

"Oh, you know. Put the cake in the furnace, and put the cocoa in the batter," she replied, and then frowned. "Or maybe it's the other way around."

I laughed at this, and she opened her door to hopefully make a cake that wasn't a complete failure. "Good luck with that," I joked, and she shot me a mockingly angry look.

"How hard can it possibly be? Besides, I have absolutely no idea if any of the new settlers is a good baker," she responded.

"I guess that the rest of us will find that out in the morning," I grinned, and the two of us shut our doors. Prae went in to begin making the cake, and I plopped right back down on the bed where I had been before she had come in. Life was good, even if the world you lived in was hell.

**TPoM**

That morning, I woke up to the smell of slightly burned bread and an invigorating aroma of chocolate. I took everything I needed and put it into my toolbelt and then headed out the door.

The smell was apparent throughout the stairwell to the ground floor. Closing the door to my room behind me, I continued through. It looked like everyone in the Imperial Battalion besides Jessica was already up. Prae's room and mine were both vacant on the top floor, Remington's was empty on the third, Aria and Skyler's were vacated on the second floor, and Mike and Clara were both absent from their rooms on the ground floor. Jessica was sound asleep in her room, though, and I silently crept down the stairs on her level of the building.

I followed the aroma across the stone road that we had built all around the city into the town hall. There, at the front table, was the entire Imperial Battalion besides Jessica and I, all waiting with a giant chocolate cake sitting in front of Prae. Although it was a nice surprise, it was slightly uneven on the right side by a couple inches.

"Surprise! Happy birthday, Jessica- Oh, wait," Aria shouted, and we laughed jubilantly.

"What, I'm not as good of a surprise as Jessica?" I joked, and this was followed by some laughs as well. I stepped up to my seat at the table and sat with the rest of the group.

Remington was sitting next to me, and I turned over to him. "Did Prae already tell you guys?" I asked, implying our departure of the coming day.

"Indeed, sire. We shall be off to the western seas at high noon, like the great naval captains who came before our time," he responded, which could have been shortened to a 'yes'.

We waited, chattering about the day's agenda, when the door opened to reveal Jessica. And this time, it actually _was_ Jessica. "Happy birthday!" we all yelled, and she blushed in surprise. She ran up and hugged Prae, and we started cutting up the cake.

Although it was cake, it tasted unsatisfactory. We tried to slowly eat it as to not hurt Prae's feelings, at least until she took a bite of her own slice. "Oh, Notch! This is disgusting," she sputtered, spitting out the pastry.

We stared at her in surprise, and she made a bewildered face at all of us. "What the hell, guys? You could have just said it was terrible," she ridiculed, triggering more laughs from the rest of us.

The happiness ended quickly, though, as a few minutes later we called the town to attention. Everyone began filtering into the town hall along the unnamed cobblestone roads. Once the entire town was settled in, I took a quick head count. Fifty seven people in all, including the Imperial Battalion. This was coming to become a large settlement.

"Hello, fellow citizens of Novum Eboracum. We have called to your attention this morning because we have three very important subjects to discuss. The third is the most important decision we have made since we have arrived here.

"I know that we have had a few blacksmiths working on this. Do we have the two suits of iron armor for Mike and Clara?" I asked, and two men near the back stood up.

"We have them ready for the two Imperial Battalion members," one of them said in a slightly gruff voice. The two men stepped forward and gave them out to Clara and Mike, who were seated at the far right of the table together.

The meeting passed quickly. We collected a group of fifteen people to begin working on the large mine for ores, and then we reached our departure.

"So, my good people, the Imperial Battalion will be leaving Khalida and Adam in charge of the city. We will be off on the western sea to go and fulfill the prophecy that Khalida Glass made three days ago. We will be saving Herobrine through the Temple of the Overworld," I announced, and many of the people began whispering.

A sole man stood up. I recalled him as one of the men who had come in a three person party two days ago. "What will we do in the meantime? And what if one of you dies in the attempt?" he queried, and many of the people in the town hall began talking about how he was right after all.

"We will not die because we will be protected by Notch himself to carry out the mission. After all, the threat of the Endermen is the one thing that must be neutralized at the moment," I responded, and the people quieted down.

The Imperial Battalion filed out of the room, followed by the entire town. Khalida and Adam led them across the stone road to the ship that Mike Waters and his company had arrived on, and they halted the group as we began to board the ship with all of our belongings, all carried from our rooms in the tall building in our backpacks, and my toolbelt.

As the town watched us, Khalida stared at me. I looked back and walked back down the wooden boardwalk as Aria passed by with a backpack stuffed full. "What's up?" I asked, and she looked down at her shoes.

"I'm sorry, I guess. I don't want you guys getting hurt, and it's all my fault that you guys have to head out to the Temple of the Overworld anyways," she muttered, and I raised her chin with my hand so I could look her in the eye.

"It's not your fault, Khalida. After all, we would have had to save Herobrine at some point at one time or another," I told her, and she shrugged.

"Yeah, but you won't have any potions to help you. You never know what kind of mess you might get in, and when you might need a potion of Fire Resistance or something of the like," she said sadly, and I smiled.

"Have you got any at the moment?" I asked, and she fished out two potions of Regeneration out of her backpack. They sparkled red, and I took one. "Bottoms up!" I joked, and downed it. Khalida swirled it in her hand, and then tilted it back into her mouth. The liquid burned at the back of my throat pleasantly, and even though I had no wounds for the potion to heal, it certainly felt rejuvenating. Khalida covered her mouth to stifle a burp.

"We'll see you when we get back," I told her, and she smiled. I turned back with no extra weight on me due to my magic toolbelt and detached the string that was holding the ship to the port. We lifted back the walkway to the port, and the many habitants of Novum Eboracum stared up at us as we slowly sailed away to sea.

Mike Waters captained the wheel of the ship. Prae walked up next to me as I leaned against the wooden railing, watching the people cheer for us and a safe return. "Do you think that the Temple really exists?" she asked me doubtfully, and I nodded right away.

"I'm positive. We'll just have to see, though."

"What do we do with our time on the ship?"

The ship was pulling out of the bay past the lighthouse, and a wave crashed into the wooden side and sprayed seawater into my face. "I wouldn't trade tomorrow for today. All we can do now is enjoy the headlong flight."

**And so begins the quest to save Herobrine. I've been holding out on the mission for a month and a half now, and I know you guys were getting pissed. So huzzah!**

** How will Novum Eboracum fare without the Imperial Battalion? Will the sea prove too much of a challenge for our heroes? And will the Temple of the Overworld truly exist? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	26. The Darkest Hour Begins

** Hello once more, my faithful readers!**

** I was bored with writing this chapter, so I waited with my awesome procrastination. It was incredibly boring to write for absolutely no reason, considering that it is an Earth chapter. No Predator Missiles means no fun.**

** But anyways, you really need to go on deviantArt now. There is so much that I'm telling you guys it's unbelievable, and there are so few people on it. Plus FMF released a picture of my Original Character for The Miner's Destiny, Mechanix. And he's wearing a Megadeth shirt and he looks like he's insane and I love it!**

** Everyone remember January 26****th****, 2013 for the release of the sequel. That means you mark your calendars, write it on your hand, you do anything so that you are staring at your computer all day long on that Saturday waiting for TPoM II to come out.**

** And some news on that. I'm not doing the thing where every chapter is named after an Iron Maiden song. It would take too much effort, and I have some better chapter names.**

** And lastly, exb756 and Mellifluousness: check your freakin' PM things. I sent you a request so that we can do DocX because there's something I need to send to both of you. I already sent it to FMF, and you two are the other honored recipients of it. Sorry community! It really isn't that important, but it's cool.**

** And now, on to the review responses!**

**Creepers rock****: I'm sorry, sometimes cliffhangers are fun for me.**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: You would be excited about saving Herobrine. I think that you were probably the highest supporter for him to be saved. But thanks for your response to the survey!**

**MinecrafterRin****: Do they have a TPoM rehab? O_o**

**FullMoonFlygon****: Yes, I did. And I had a perfectly reasonable reason to. The thing is, it's a nice name. :D But you're totally right about Aria. Next chapter, I will give her a scene with Alex like Skyler! And you forgot about the question about your suspicions of Mike Waters' new group. It doesn't really matter that much.**

**Kyanite Archer****: Flu really is the queen of big, intellectual words. And I made a mistake! Oh noes! But the hypocritical thing makes sense. Like, it can mean that it is kind of ironic, which makes sense in that particular situation. And thank you for your survey response!**

**Spidercooce****: Excuse me! That language will not be tolerated!**

**Sea of Fire****: I wonder exactly how your mom would fit into Novum Eboracum. Then again, I never have met your mom. O_o**

**Exb756****: What the- You WANTED her to explode? That would be particularly gruesome, even for a story where zombies and skeletons are taking over the world. Shudder.**

**Night wl****: Were you listening to Bottoms Up by Van Halen? Because that is a fun song. :D**

**SimonStormCloak****: Latin is the second language of Minecraftia OFFICIALLY.**

**PigeonFligher****: I think that you might have a thing about stereotypes. And how is the chocolate cake a lie? I like choco cakes.**

**N00blord****: You annoy me.**

**Ptrip3****: Actually, the Earth is the First Realm. The End is the Fifth, and so on. And you're a Detroit/Michigan University fan? Well take that! BEARS BEAT THE COWBOYS!**

**VA842867****: And climbing. We shall reach at least second, although I doubt I'll ever reach 1 over TMD.**

**Thefinalhero7000****: Well I apologize for wasting your A/N time. Hurumph.**

**Armyofcreepers****: I'm glad to hear that you like it! I personally enjoy my story a lot. :D**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 26**

**The Darkest Hour Begins**

As rain pelted down on the highway, our two motorcycles sped by in a flash. Thunder racked the sky following an arc of lightning. The water that had remained on the road of the highway splashed up around the tires of the motorcycles. Hudson followed me close behind.

"How much longer until we carry out on foot?" my radio crackled with his voice. It was necessary for us to use radios because of our high speeds and the fact that we would be splitting up once we had reached Stockholm.

"As soon as Anonymous' jamming tower shuts down our radios. It shouldn't be too much longer now," I said back into the microphone attached to my combat helmet. The sunglasses that were hiding my eyes were splattered with water, making it a little harder to see than normal. Still, it was better than getting water in my eyes.

"I can see the skyline now," Hudson commented as I swerved around a destroyed car. It was true. The many church towers that populated the Scandinavian city were beginning to become clearly visible in the night. What worried me was that there were many lights in the buildings we were approaching. The intelligence that we had stolen from the Resistance database systems along with our equipment had said that Anonymous had made a fort on the eastern side of the city, which was near the Mojang building. The intel had also said that as many as seventy soldiers had been stationed in Stockholm in Anonymous' effort to investigate the site of the Mojang disaster.

My earpiece was beginning to make static. I made a jerking hand motion to Hudson behind me and pulled over. He followed suit, and I threw the motorcycle aside. We wouldn't need it, and there was no point bringing it in where Anonymous could gain intel about the Resistance's transportation. Maybe we were carrying out missions unauthorized by the United States, but we weren't going to deliberately give the enemy information. After all, Anonymous _were_ still the bad guys.

I switched off my microphone, as it was useless for now. Hudson did the same, and I grabbed my MP7 from my back. It was suppressed, and the model was my favorite gun to use. We began walking along the highway around rusted vehicles, our footsteps splashing in the water. "Let's get into the city and then find the jamming tower," I told Hudson. "From there, we'll shut it down and I'll provide sniper support while you take out the Communication Center. I'll give the jamming tower a taste of thermite and we'll secure the Mojang building, all the while obtaining all the information we can."

Hudson chuckled a little bit, followed by a loud crack of thunder from the storm around us. "Who made you in charge?" he ridiculed.

"Hmm, I don't know, maybe God? Or Notch? Or my own free will?" I responded, and Hudson's smile faded.

"I won't disagree, but let's just carry out the mission," he muttered, and the two of us continued in an eerie sort of silence. Only the loud booms of thunder interrupted the splattering sound of rain hitting the pavement ground.

The highway slowly faded into a stone road, and just like that we were in the city. The streets were littered with roadblocks of forms, some sandbags, some destroyed cars, and some empty ammunition crates. There were two small pools of blood at an intersection five blocks into the city, only three away from the Mojang building. Trails of blood led away from the site, indicating that the bodies had been dragged away. But the blood sparkled as the rain hit it; it was relatively fresh.

We reached another intersection and ducked behind a pile of sandbags. There were snipers on the roofs now, red laser sights darting around the open areas of the street. A patrol of five men walked by us to the other side of the road, and I checked my hologram map in my pocket. It was state of the art technology, created just before the Mojang disaster had wiped out all future human ingenuity. Either way, the device had been a symbol for what could have been the future of warfare. The building on the northwest of the intersection, which was across the street to the right, was the Communications Center. Down the block was the jamming tower, and a flash of lightning illuminated the sky, revealing it's silhouette standing tall above the rest of the city.

As we hid behind the sandbags, I made a quick calculation. The buildings here were about three stories tall, which would amount to roof levels thirty five feet above the ground. The jamming tower looked to be at least another ten yards tall, and it was set up on top of a second tier of the roof another twenty feet up. One of the snipers on the roof across the street ended his pass on this intersection, and we sprinted across into the building parallel to the block that housed the jamming tower and Communications Center.

"The intelligence said that the jamming tower and Comm Center were on the outside of the fort around the Mojang building. So according to that, this building should be empty. Let's move up to next intersection and get into the building underneath the jamming tower. Stay frosty, though. You never know where those Anonymous bastards are hiding," I whispered to Hudson.

From there we began moving forward along the corridor in the building. Our footsteps were silent, and I flipped open my air calculator. Oxygen levels were good, even though it had registered a lot of ash in the air. Where was there not ash these days? Gamma levels were normal, and then I checked what was most important: electromagnetic energy. Sure enough, it was increasing by the second. Notch was here in Stockholm.

"He's here," I breathed, and Hudson turned to me.

"Notch?" he queried, and I solemnly nodded. We entered a living room of an old apartment, and we were treated with a grotesque sight. There was a single skeleton, not from the Mojang disaster because of everyone in Stockholm just being vaporized. No, it was from afterward. The skeleton sat up in a chair, it's bony arms wrapped an empty cup. Leaning back on its skull was a British SAS hat. Hopefully it was old.

"You know what would be nice to have right now?" Hudson mused, and I turned to him while climbing a ladder into a trashed kitchen through a hole in the floor. "A couple of J-DAMS."

I had to contain a laugh, considering we were deep behind enemy lines. A J-DAM was a carpet bombing American plane. A group of ten or so carried enough explosives to level what used to be the Eastern Seaboard.

Hudson was about to walk through a doorway into a hallway when I heard voices from the hallway. I held my arm out to stop him, and just barely peeked out. There were three Anonymous guards there, all facing away from our doorway.

"I'm getting tons of electromagnetic energy on my radar. Are you sure that Lieutenant Vorchevsky said not to investigate the target building yet?" one of them said.

"You know the consequences of unassigned missions around here. Just make sure no one's around here. That patrol was shot dead with P99 bullets. That's British, men. Maybe the Americans aren't coming back for the Mojang building, but the United Kingdom isn't a minor threat either," another responded, and they all were quiet. I looked at Hudson, and he nodded.

I jumped out from behind the doorway and sprayed MP7 bullets into the patrol. Red spray shot up from their backs, and they all fell dead. Shooting a glance at my gun, I released a sigh. This thing was instant death in my hands, and it hadn't made a sound.

Waving my hand forward, Hudson and I stepped over the bodies to a window. Across the street was the building with the jamming tower. It climbed high up into the air, and was illuminated every ten seconds a fresh flash of lightning. "Let's get down to the ground level, and we'll make our way to the jamming tower," I ordered Hudson, and we turned around. It appeared that at the moment we were in a hotel, and I walked up to a closed elevator door. It was shut, but it was completely closed off.

"Help me with this, will you?" I said, gritting my teeth as I slowly pulled the small opening to the elevator shaft open. Hudson walked over, set his MP7 down on the floor, and then began pulling on the other door. For a while they wouldn't budge, and then I threw a huge pull into it and my side slid back. It automatically opened the other side as well.

Stepping backward, I wiped my forehead. It was lined with a thin layer of sweat, although most of it was covered by my combat helmet. After I caught my breath, the two of us walked over to the edge of the shaft. We were on the third floor, and the elevator door on the ground floor was forced open. Every flash of lightning forced a bright light out into the shaft from the opening.

There was a steel cable in the middle of the shaft. I stepped back from the edge, and then ran forward and jumped toward it. My hands gripped it, and I slowly slid down. The edges in the cable cut into my combat gloves, but they didn't rip. At the bottom, I kicked off the wall and landed on the other side of the elevator door. While Hudson followed suit, I scanned the ground floor through the iron sight of my MP7.

"You take the building from the east, I'll go in from the north fire escape," I commanded, and we reached the intersection through a trashed lobby. The two of us crossed the street, and I was about to turn the corner when he turned to me.

"See you at the jamming tower. We won't have radio contact, so try not to get killed," Hudson told me, and I saluted him. "You too, Sergeant," I responded.

He ducked through an open window into the building, and I turned the corner. Making sure that the snipers didn't catch me in their sight, I found the fire escape and pulled down the ladder and climbed up. Afterwards, I pulled it back up. It was best not to leave a single unnecessary trace of our assault. I carried on climbing up the fragile metal steps.

On the third floor there was a door. It was closed, and I didn't bother jiggling the handle to see if it was locked. If it was, then that would give me away. Instead, I crouched down and set my MP7 back on my straps and took out a much bigger weapon. Although the Barrett .50 Cal was meant to be used for my sniper support up on the jamming tower's tier, I could still use it here sparingly. There was a sniper on the building opposite me, and if I was to carry out my plan, then he would need to go.

My Barrett wasn't silenced, so I would have to time it with the thunder to remain undetected. Staring down the scope, I found the sniper walking toward the intersection Hudson and I had just passed through. There was lightning, and I pulled the trigger. The sniper fell over on the roof, thankfully not over the edge, and all I had heard was the loud crack of thunder. Smiling, I thanked God for making it storm tonight.

The smell of gunpowder invaded my nostrils, and I strapped my Barrett on my back once more, taking out my MP7. The mag wasn't full, so I replaced it with a fresh one and pulled back the safety. For this next step, I couldn't afford to be firing blanks. Pulling out a charge, I placed it on the outside of the wooden door and stood back, my back pressed to the brickwork so that I wouldn't be injured in the explosion. The switch shook in my hand, and I flicked it.

The door blasted open, and I jumped in the way through the smoke and fire and found a target. This man was the only one who was readily armed, and a few bullets in the chest made sure that he wasn't a problem. Another man reached for a rifle sitting on a table, and his head was cut open in a red spray. There were two other men, and they were killed just as easily.

I looked around. Maybe I had forgotten to time the blast with thunder, but it seemed that I was lucky. Thunder had gone off just a second after the explosion, covering it up. The room I was in was an abandoned living room, and the four bodies lay dead on the floor. There was a ladder on the right side of the room to a trapdoor, which I assumed led up to the roof.

Climbing up the wooden rungs, I hoped that there weren't any hostiles covering the trapdoor. It seemed I was getting extremely lucky today, because as I pushed it open, a dead soldier already lay next to me and Hudson had his sights trained on me. His muscles loosened themselves up, and I climbed up out onto the roof.

"I beat you up here. Guess you owe me a drink," he joked, and I kicked the trapdoor so that it flipped over and closed.

"No kidding you did. You don't need to state facts for me," I retorted, and stared to my right. The tier was built on metal supports, and there was a stairway on the far left of it. We walked forward to the staircase, making sure that no snipers on the roof were observing us, and climbed up to the jamming tower. There were two snipers up there, but they were facing out onto the streets below. I walked over to the one facing north and gripped his mouth, silencing him as I drove a knife through his neck. It was quick work, and yet sufficient and effective.

Hudson had taken the other sniper in much the same way, and I crouched down. "There's the Comm Center," I told him, pointing out to an extra floor of the building on the other side of the block. There was a small satellite dish on top of it, and I turned back to the jamming tower. Now it loomed above us at a very close distance, and I walked over to its power switch. It was sleek metal, and I slammed it down. The jamming tower didn't change in appearance, but I flicked my earpiece on. "Do you read me, Hudson?" I said, and Hudson looked back at me.

"Well, no dip I can hear you from over here. But yeah, the communications are back on. I'll head down to the Comm Center," he commented, and I took out my bundle of thermite and attached it to the base of the jamming tower. Hudson walked down the stairs, and I went prone with my Barrett back out. Hudson was in my sights, and I twisted the adjustable zoom so that I had a wider range of sight.

"All clear. Just take cover, and I'll survey the path in front of you periodically," I told Hudson through our earpiece.

"Roger that. You know, I wasn't kidding about the J-DAMs," I heard him say back to me, and I put together an image in my mind of a fleet of planes bombing the roof until the jamming tower and Comm Center stood no more. A loud crack of thunder shook me out of my destructive fantasy, and I focused on the scope of my Barrett.

"Hold on. Patrol of three on the roof with you, armed with SMGs. Bet behind cover and I'll make it quick and clean," I warned Hudson, and he ducked behind an air vent. The three soldiers were talking together, and the three of them kept glancing in the direction of the Mojang building. There was a crack of thunder, and my scope hovered over one man's head. Pulling the trigger, his head was blasted apart in a spray of blood, and I quickly adjusted to pick off the other two. In a matter of seconds, the three dead bodies lay on the roof motionless, and Hudson peeked out at them from behind the air vent.

"Damn. You got them good," he commented, and I took out the magazine of my Barrett and loaded it with a full one, tossing the other aside. "All clear."

Hudson vaulted over the air vent and carefully walked around the dead bodies, and presumed to hide behind a slab of stone that leveled into the next building that stood about three feet tall. On the Comm Center walls, there were catwalks, and two snipers patrolled them. "Two snipers, twelve o' clock high. Stay there while I shut them out," I voiced in to Hudson, and I watched as his form ducked behind the small ledge on the roof. There were no windows on the catwalk, so at the next crack of thunder, a bullet when through one man's heart and the other man's neck. Both of them were dead immediately after impact.

Hudson reached the front of the Comm Center and placed a C4 charge on the door. I surveyed the roof around him. "All clear. Move up," I ordered him, and I watched as the wall with the door was blown to shreds as Hudson moved into the building. There was gunfire over my earpiece, and Hudson was silent for a few moments. When the last shot had been fired, he responded to me.

"They're done. I'll shut it down now. Oh, wait-" he began, but never was able to finish as the butt of an assault rifle hit the back of my head.

Throbbing, I rolled over quickly to find an Anonymous soldier staring down at me. He had a menacing sort of grin, and he seemed a little pissed off that the first blow hadn't knocked me out for good. He raised his other arm, which was holding a knife, and threw his arm down at my chest.

Luckily, I tumbled over the edge just in time, and hit the bottom tier of the roof with a grunt. I quickly took out the switch to the thermite and pressed the button hard, jamming my finger in the process. Speaking of jammed, the jamming tower exploded at the base, and it creaked and caught flame as it crashed onto the eastern street. There was no doubt that the explosion had killed the man who had caught me, there was no question in that.

"Go loud, go loud!" Hudson shouted into my earpiece, and I scrambled to my feet, unscrewing the suppressor from my MP7. It would only decrease its range now, and we were already detected anyways. The back of my head throbbed a bit, but I shook it off and continued toward the Comm Center and Hudson.

As I sprinted away from the jamming tower's tier on the roof, there was another explosion from where it had collapsed. An aftershock of sorts, except with smoke and fire instead of the earth shifting its plates. "Watch your fire to the north!" I yelled into my earpiece.

In a few more moments, I had scrambled over an air duct and had reached about ten Anonymous men who were all shooting at the open door of the Comm Center. "They're mine," I told Hudson, and opened fire on the unsuspecting soldiers. My clip ran out when there were only three left, and I ducked behind a destroyed slab of stone. Hudson came out from behind the entryway of the Comm Center and shot down the three soldiers who had turned to me.

"Nice one. Let's shut down the Comm Center for good so that they can't bring in reinforcements," I commanded Hudson, and the two of us hurried back inside. As I walked in, a sniper bullet hit the brickwork of the building, and I hit the ground once inside as small chunks of cement and brick were destroyed on the outside. Now we had snipers to worry about.

Hudson reached the large video screens on the wall smashed the control panel. There was wiring poking out from a small cabinet, and I opened it and kicked the equipment inside to shreds. There were still sniper bullets hitting the outside of our building, and every one that found its target made me jump a little bit. We were searching the room for intelligence when I finally found a manila folder. On the cover it read '_The Next Step_'. Scanning it, I opened up the folder and scoured its contents. There were portfolios of guns to be used in whatever mission that Anonymous was planning, and blueprints. Then I turned the page, and there staring out at me was my face. There was information about who I was, where I had lived before enlisting in the war, what missions I had taken part of. Written in that red again under my portfolio (which I was now sure was blood) was '_Find the Girl_'.

Another sniper bullet hit the building, and I looked up. Hudson was reading the page upside down, and he looked into my eye. "What the hell are we dealing with?" he breathed.

I shook my head in confusion as another bullet hit the building. "Let's get to the Mojang building and secure it," I ordered.

I walked to the door and was greeted by a rush of air as a bullet passed me. I dropped to my stomach, and taking out my Barrett, I found the row of snipers. They were on the next building into Anonymous' fort, and I opened fire. Five of them took five bullets, and that was an entire magazine. They were no longer a threat, so we could continue west.

Taking out my MP7, we went down a metal ladder that was on the western façade of the building and continued down the streets. There were now Anonymous soldiers on the streets, and I ducked behind a pile of sandbags and we began picking them off. We had almost eliminated the current threat when the ground around me exploded. "RPG!" Hudson shouted into my earpiece, and I rolled over. There was a man reloading the rocket launcher on an eagle's nest fort on the third floor of a building near us, and with his position observed, he stood no chance against my MP7.

Fires burned on the streets, and we kept moving quickly. We reached the Mojang just as an attack helicopter rounded the corner and began firing at us. Once inside, I took out my Barrett and aimed up at the pilot through a small hole in the building. One bullet was all it took, and the helicopter spun out of control without someone guiding its direction and smashed into the ground on the next street over.

We were safe for now. I turned back to Hudson, who was staring at the portal frame. Except it wasn't empty. The green swirls were very much active, and out stepped Notch. Staring at him, I relaxed a little bit. What was it about him that made me feel so safe?

"Not as hostile as our first meeting, are you?" he began, stepping out with his own folder in hand. He caught me staring at it and chuckled. "It seems that these play a great hand in war, doesn't it seem like that?"

"Sorry that we weren't guarding the portal. Well, actually, we aren't supposed to be right now," I apologized, but he held up his hand to silence me.

"I know about your desertion. Trust me, I know many things. But I'm only here for a short moment. I have found out how to seal the portal between Earth and Minecraftia. No one will be able to open up except for me and the next Chosen One," he told me, handing me the folder. "Do not open that. It is not for your eyes, and it shall never be for mine ever again. Hand down generation by generation until the time is right. What you have can change your world, and mine, forever.

"Sergeant Hudson, I am glad to meet you, even if I must go so soon. But my world is in its own world, it seems, and I must go. Dylan Richter, you may feel like a pawn, but continue the mission to stop them. Don't let them keep the President's daughter," he continued, and I stopped him there.

"Wait, when it says find the girl, they're trying to get the President's daughter?" I asked, and he held up his hand. If Anonymous could secure her, that could be a major hostage situation. Political people, especially the person at the head of what was left of society these days could not handle this kind of stress.

"Yes, and you must save her. Everything is with your name. Just seek it out. And remember the new folder. Guard it with your life, and tell your sons and daughters the same," he said, stepping into the portal.

"Notch! Wait, there's so much that we need to tell you-" I started, but his form shimmered away and the green substance faded away. I held my hand up inside the frame where he had vanished. I wasn't teleporting anywhere anytime soon.

It was the last I ever saw of Notch.

**Indeed, the darkest hour has begun. The world hangs in the balance, and now it all rests on Alex Glowstone. Officially.**

** What was in the folder that Notch gave to Sergeant Richter? Where will Hudson and Richter travel next? And what is happening at sea with the Imperial Battalion? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	27. Headlong Flight

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** So, I actually finished this chapter on Saturday afternoon, and I'm writing this author's note on Monday? Why? Because I had no internet, considering I drove a while down to Jacksonville to see the Bears completely squash the life out of the Jaguars. If our offense shapes up, then we would be the best team in the league!**

** Oh, wait. It is. :D**

** Football aside (even though the US is very much a football nation. I speak to you, Colbert Nation. I also bought America Again this weekend to read.), Muse's new album came out the past week. I listened to it over and over again, and I'm listening to it right now, actually. (Panic Station just started) What does this matter?**

** Well, their new album is something called a **_**concept album**_**, which is a set-list of music designed to tell a story. Think Clockwork Angels by Rush. Don't know what that is? Here's my middle finger.**

** But anyway, the 2****nd**** Law (the new album) deals with this planet in the future not being able to sustain energy because of a variety of factors. Too complicated to explain. But the last two songs, 'Unsustainable' and 'Isolated System' deal with a formula about converting energy with an isolated system into something indestructible, and eventually runs out and makes everything unsustainable.**

** Thing is, Notch develops this theory. As seen in this chapter sitting in front of you.**

** OK, you actually have to read the chapter to figure out the rest. So go read it. But only after the review responses!**

**Exb756****: Note to self: don't play Team Fortress 2…. But yeah. And the folder's contents are not allowed to be shared with you all. It is of the best interest. And it's always nice to hear you like my story so much! I'm getting to Gone, don't worry.**

**Night wl****: I like Van Halen. :D And yeah, here's the next chapter.**

**PigeonFligher****: There will be plenty more Earth. Don't worry about that. (Survival just started on my iPod. What the frick are those little voices saying 'ah' over again?!)**

**N00blord****: Please write something meaningful. And I'm not mean, it's just that your reviews are truly a waste of space. ONE MORE AND YOU WILL BE PUT ON SPAM ALERT! TRUST ME! I'M NOT BLUFFING**

**VA842867****: Here ya go!**

**SPACEMAN NEXUS****: All right! Dance like the Jaguar cheerleaders! :D**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: Trust me, I'm pulling for you and him to be included. After all, I had absolutely no say in you guys being nominated in the first place. Are you listening, FMF?!**

**Shayor****: Congrats on your new profile. I guess.**

**SimonStormCloak****: Where'd I reference Makarov?**

**Reaper41****: Dylan and Hudson specifically will never go to Minecraftia. That's all I'll say.**

**Peachking20****: That's cool, I guess.**

**Armyofcreepers****: Correct. Very important, actually. (Follow Me)**

**Spalter222****: I'm glad to hear your opinion!**

**DreamlessYuki****: I'm glad to see that I have a new fan! :D**

** OK, and now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 27**

**Headlong Flight**

It wasn't long before the lighthouse that gave us a view of Novum Eboracum faded from sight, and we were out on the sea. The water splashed up with every small wave, and the spray of the ocean felt good on my face. Although I had never been away from land, this was surely going to be a fun trip. At least, until we made it to the Temple of the Overworld.

Everyone was on the deck of the ship, staring out at where Novum Eboracum had vanished. Mike was steering the ship from the hull above a door that led down to a room with beds, chests, workbenches, and furnaces. At high noon, the day was only halfway through. Even though that was true, I felt like I hadn't slept in forever.

A gust of wind rippled through the Aether Cloud masts, and Mike looked up at them worriedly. "Wind can sometimes mean a storm is coming when you're at sea. I don't like the looks of that, even if the S.S. Wolfpack is a strong ship. Hopefully she can withstand a gale," he commented, turning the wooden wheel to right as he dodged a small wave.

"The S.S. Wolfpack?" I queried, and he smiled a little bit.

"In memory of the city that never was. Or never will be, I guess," he shrugged.

Clara was climbing up a rope ladder up to the crow's nest. Her long brown hair swept down past her shoulders as she skillfully went from rung to rung all the way up to the small nest on top of the ship. "How exactly are we supposed to reach the Temple of the Overworld, anyways? If it is just legend, then no one will actually have known the coordinates of the island that it rests on," I asked Mike.

"See, that's where you are wrong, Glowstone. The legends carefully state the coordinates over and over again, and I know them by heart. The way the winds are blowing in our favor and considering we just left, I'd say we have about seven hours on this sea until we reach the island," he explained, steering around a small rock that bulged out of the water, like a wasted island.

This confused me. "How are the coordinates known if no one has ever actually reached the Temple?"

"People have reached it. There are just a variety of supernatural factors that prevent its secrets from being spilled; memory loss, curses, even death. The island has produced quite a few shipwrecks through time, I must say," he continued, and at my look of skepticism, he raised an eyebrow. "You should trust me. If anyone knows naval history on this boat, its me."

I walked away, having been given the information that I needed, and walked off of the high deck down the stairs and through the door to the quarters. The door opened into a small living room down some stairs that had windows out to the sea, and a small trapdoor led to a hallway with four rooms. Prae and I would be sharing again, naturally.

Aria, Skyler, Jessica, Prae, and Remington were all sitting in the living room. It was just the naval captains that remained on the decks above us. The original Imperial Battalion members were sitting in chairs around a small fire in the middle of the room, and they were talking in hushed voices about what was to come.

"I still honestly don't know about Mike and his gang. He seemed so eager to join up, considering that the majority of us are under eighteen years old," Jessica mused.

"The thing is, they want to help. They should be given that freedom, right?" Aria piped up. It was getting easier for me to tell that she was working on how she used to be shy. She was beginning to talk with everyone else at ease.

"Yeah, I guess so. But after that little episode with Skyler, I'm not positive," Prae shrugged, and Skyler shot her a look.

"That's over. I know that we might not have had a great past together, but now everyone needs to work as allies if we want to beat the Endermen, and I don't want Mike to get in our way," he explained, closing the subject. I had reached a seat between Aria and Prae.

"Any word on how long that the trip will take, Alex?" Jessica asked, and I nodded.

"Mike says seven hours if the conditions hold up. Knowing our luck, though, they probably won't. He expects a storm to be on the way considering the wind," I sighed, and this was followed by a series of groans.

"Now, this is no way to be thinking, comrades! Why, if trouble comes our way, we have a ranged armory that will surely expel those shadow beasts to a Realm worse than the Nether!" Remington exclaimed, rising out of his seat to maximize the effect of his proclamation.

"Oh yeah? Like what, a bunch of bows and arrows?" Skyler muttered, and Remington seemed to get even more eager.

"Come with me, sire, and I shall show what Captain Waters has hidden from the Endermen that will destroy them in splendid fashion," he continued, beckoning to me. We followed him through a door on the right side of the stairs, and were greeted by a room with small grey boxes on the sides. There were five on the left and right, and they were positioned where wooden planks should have been on the walls of the ship. Directly above each grey block was a hole in the wall to stare out to sea, and mist floated through them.

"What are these?" Prae said solemnly. "A bunch of furnaces?"

Remington chuckled a bit. "Praecordia, you must overcome your ignorance. These are all dispensers, and if you investigate them, they are all loaded with charges of flame. If our almighty ship meets trouble at sea, we will have an armory to use," he explained. I walked over to one of the dispensers and clicked it open. Remington had been right. Each one was loaded with nine fire charges, which would come in handy in naval warfare.

We spent a couple minutes exploring the room for any other secrets. Sadly, there were none, and I walked back up from the cannon room with the rest of the group. Back on the deck, the wooden surface had grown sleek with the water's spray. Mike had unfortunately been right. The masts were rippling consistently in the heavy wind, and there were dark clouds brewing in the distance. Dark clouds and wind meant storms were in the making, and that was a seaman's worst nightmare.

Clara was coming back down the rope ladder from the crow's nest. "Hey, guys. Thought I'd let you know we probably have thirty minutes or so before we reach the storm," she greeted us, unfortunately with bad news. At that moment, a gust of wind larger than anything I had ever experienced blew through us, and I actually had to grip the wooden pillar holding one of the masts to keep from falling over in surprise.

"Damn. It's kind of obvious at this point, wouldn't you say?" Mike shouted down at us from the upper deck, and I proceeded up the stairs to his position.

"Thirty minutes. And we've been at sea for how long, now?" Aria queried to him, and looked over at an analog watch that was around his wrist. It was very peculiar, actually. The watch had a white background and was trimmed with a gold frame, like most watches. But instead of a sun and moon or even numbers to indicate the exact time, the clock had weird symbols in place of numbers. The minute hand was pointed to a symbol where a twelve would normally be, except it looked more like an 'X' with glyphs moving out of its sides. The hour hand was where a three would normally be, but this symbol looked like a circle with a cross sticking out of it and pointing toward the center of the clock.

"Roughly three hours. Winds are still blowing in our favor, as if they are being sucked into the storm somehow. It really is nothing like I've seen before. But assuming we make it through the storm at this incredible speed, we would have to go back out from the heart of it _against_ the wind. Our speed right now is cutting about thirty minutes off the time to get to the Temple of the Overworld, and coming out of it would probably tack the same time back on through fighting into the wind. But normally the western sea's jet stream wind force is going this way consistently," he replied, his normal grin becoming less apparent as he kept stating the factors that were against us.

"Normally? The wind is blowing pretty consistent right now, isn't it?" shrugged Jessica.

"Yeah, it's definitely blowing hard for us right now, but the storm is sucking in the air instead of moving with the wind. Normally, storm clouds will just concentrate the air that moves through them as a destructive force. But this storm is stealing the air from what is around it. Moving back out of it will be a pain in the ass. This isn't like anything that I was taught about back in Mt. Wolfpack. You could almost call it supernatural," Clara responded, answering the question directed at Mike for him.

Skyler was staring at the storm, a small flicker of fear crossing his eyes. "Supernatural things usually aren't a good sign. Especially when they involve shadows. Oh, yeah, and did I mention being on a ship three hours away from any known land is kind of a death trap?" he rambled a little worriedly.

"Well, actually there's a small island an hour to the south of us," Mike corrected him knowingly, and Skyler gave him an icy stare.

"So what, are we just going to take a direct left away from the storm? That's not happening anytime soon," he spat, and shook his head. "I'm sorry, I'm just not a really big fan of storms and Endermen and a lot of other things that would like to take us and slit our throats right now."

"That's OK. Look, why don't you guys all head downstairs. It is going to get really cold out here, so there's no point in you guys getting sick," Mike warned us, and the seven of us walked down the stairs. Along with the sea spray, there was now a light rain coming down. I slipped on the stairs, and almost made a fool of myself by tripping down them. Thunder rolled across the sky, and lightning flashed off in the distance. If we had thirty minutes, then I was going to use those thirty minutes to prep the fire charge cannons.

I didn't know much about weather, but if this storm was abnormal to the point of it being possibly supernatural, then I wanted to be on my guard. Supernatural things, like Skyler had said, are usually not exactly a good thing to encounter. Once everyone was inside, I closed the door behind me. Hopefully Mike knew what he was doing.

**TPoM**

Notch still stood in the Earth room of the Temple of the Aether. The portal that he had reactivated a couple weeks ago with a sapling was shut down. All that was left of the only way back to the First Realm was the chrome frame. And, of course, the special sapling that was tucked into a chest next to it.

The diagrams and holograms surrounded Notch, and he slowly turned in his shoes, observing the room around him. Everything note, every fact, every picture that rested in here was a bitter memory of the world he had left behind. And as the days went by, the more he had begun to blame himself for the war that had completely savaged the Earth.

Turning to the chest next to the portal frame, Notch adjusted his brown robe and opened it. Next to the sapling he set down the suppressed P99. Weapons from the First Realm were bitterly useless in the Aether, and all of Minecraftia for that matter. The folder had rested in that chest before. The folder he had handed over to Sergeant Dylan Richter.

_God bless him_, Notch thought, shutting the chest for the last time in a while. _That thing is humanity's last resort. Because the way things are going, and the way things are meant to happen, that war will never end. It doesn't matter what they'll do; Anonymous will find a way to counter the bitterest losses, and vice versa with the Resistance._

He walked over to a small hologram. It showed a female reporter, and the headline read '_Disaster in Stockholm Wipes Out City's Inhabitants_'. In the bottom right corner was a small FOX NEWS logo. Notch smiled. He remembered that channel. There was a small button beneath the hologram, and he pressed it to activate the video.

The reporter began talking, but there was static every couple seconds. In the background of her was a projected image of the destroyed Mojang building. "All natural and technological processes proceed in such a way that the availability of the remaining energy decreases. In all energy exchanges, if no energy enters of leaves an isolated system, the energy of that system increases. The energy continuously flows from being concentrated to becoming dispersed; spread out. Wasted, useless. New energy cannot be created, and high grade energy is being destroyed. An economy based on endless grade is unsustainable."

At that moment of the report, the static grew so intense that the screen flickered and the projection faltered. Notch stared at the spot that the hologram had previously been and sighed. It seemed everything that had been the First Realm was fading away.

He stepped from the news hologram to a sheet of paper. Or rather, four large sheets of paper. They were affixed onto a wall near the portal, and he squinted to read the frayed handwriting. It was a life size copy of the United States Constitution.

The good ol' US. Notch hadn't actually lived there at any moment of his life, but he had certainly traveled there quite a few times. He remembered the very first MineCon in Las Vegas. That weekend, he had placed bets with fellow Mojang members on sports. Just meaningless 'football' games. He remembered Jeb being mad about how they had stolen what they called soccer's name. It was only a different sport in a different culture, and Notch had won on a bet in favor on the New England Patriots. Apparently they were a really good team.

This good memory only stirred up two bad ones in his mind. MineCon had eventually been the event that he had unveiled the portal to Minecraftia at. That had been the event that had destroyed Stockholm. That had been the event where he lost Emily forever.

And Jeb. He had been his most trusted employee back at Mojang. Well, you really couldn't call the others employees, considering that they all had an equal share of the company and all dedicated the same amount of time to Minecraft and the other games that they were making. Jeb, though, he had refused to come with the rest of them into Minecraftia. He had stayed back on Earth, to let his family live out their lives where they had started. For all Notch knew, his family was still sticking it out, generation after generation.

His mind drifted back to the folder. There was information about Jeb himself in there, considering that he had stayed back for another reason that he had hid from his family. There was the satellite. The satellite that Notch had built and launched into space to help him with creating the portal because of all the technicalities it took. The report that he had found earlier was a basic analysis of what he had done. But FOX NEWS had absolutely no idea to what extent he had concentrated the energy. The important thing was, the satellite had been hijacked by Anonymous shortly after he had finished the portal. Luckily, Notch had designed the portal without the satellite needing to disperse the energy, in a nutshell, for it to work.

That satellite was nothing to take lightly, though. If Notch could make a whole other universe with the thing, then what could the greatest Anonymous scientists in the world do?

Possibly nothing. If that was the answer, then Notch had wrapped up the award for the smartest person in the history of mankind.

Closing the door to the Earth room, he locked away those secrets that he had hidden in there. The Earth room, however, was not the only place Notch had left those secrets. And the other place he had left them was under attack. The Endermen had completely secured the Temple of the Nether, and that left the Temple of the Aether vulnerable. The Endermen would never reach the Earth room, though, even with their code-altering powers. There were simply too many Valkyries and angels guarding the portal from the Nether now. No, they would take the easier path to try and reach Earth. The secrets of Earth had been hidden in the Temple of the Overworld, as well.

Notch was hurrying now, his walking pace brought up to a jog. The Endermen were unsustainable energy, just like the portal that he had manufactured. Computer code that had taken a life form. Concentrated energy, and it was unable to disperse it and release that energy to the rest of the world. The energy that the Endermen used was useless once processed.

For example, if a plant on Earth were to use photosynthesis and create energy for itself, the plant wouldn't actually be _creating_ energy. It would just be converting the sun's energy to combine it with water and carbon dioxide to make glucose. The glucose could be used for the plant, and that energy would be in turn be compounded into the ground as a separate, new form of energy. The sun, water, and carbon dioxide's energy would be converted to create energy in the form of glucose, a sugar, and oxygen. The plant would use the sugar, and give off the oxygen for other life forms to use. But if the plant just used the oxygen as something to destroy used energy with, burning it at the molecular base, then it would be completely wasting it. This was molecularly impossible on Earth. The Endermen, however, they were a different story.

_In an isolated system, the energy can only increase_. Energy that was kept within certain cycle would only absorb and grow larger. This was an idea about energy itself that was claimed impossible by Earth's greatest scientists. And yet, a _band_ of all people researched the idea and wrote an entire concept album about the idea. _The 2__nd__ Law,_ by a band named _Muse_. The 2nd Law was what the idea forged itself into inside of Notch's mind, and he listened to the two songs on the album that were directed toward the idea. It was electro-pop music, but with a symphony, drums, bass, and guitars. The full package, one might say.

The 2nd Law was what inspired Notch to create the portal. This would be a feat completely unprecedented, and there was no other way to achieve the energy levels needed for the idea to be successful than using the 2nd Law. After all, that energy was unsustainable.

Down the stairs and into the main hall. Notch stared out. There were a good fifteen angels and another ten Valkyries all camped around the two portals. One was an Aether portal which would lead to the Temple of the Overworld. The other was leading to the Temple of the Nether, and Notch grew worried. He could not establish a link with Herobrine, which should be really easy considering his immortality as a god in Minecraftia. That could only mean that the Endermen were somehow sucking his energy from him and transporting it into- what?

Themselves? A weapon? Or maybe even the Enderdragon itself? The last idea worried Notch incredibly, because the Enderdragon had been banished. If it was truly back, then Alex had quite another fight on his hands than Notch had thought. After all, it had appeared in his disrupted link with Alex. Things were looking bleak for the Guardian of the Aether.

There was a storm on the western sea. The continent that the major cities had been on had been shaped exactly like the continental United States. Another reminder of a world before. Novum Eboracum was roughly where San Francisco would have been on a map of the US. Mt. Wolfpack had been at Sacramento's position, Magnam Civitatem in Portland, Oregon, Imperial Plains in Seattle, and New Copenhagen down in Los Angeles. The Overworld's 'Rocky Mountains' had not been traversed by anyone, simply because it was too much of a challenge. Apart from the United States shaped continent, the rest of the Overworld had generated completely randomly. The Sunset Sea, where Alex Glowstone and his company were sailing, was where the Pacific would have been, although there were islands where there weren't really in the First Realm. The storm was not natural, just like Mike, Clara, and Skyler had implied.

The Endermen would reach the Temple of the Overworld soon. However, there was something more important to them that they needed to take care of, first. They had created the storm. And there was another of Mt. Wolfpack's ships at the very center of it. Aboard it were ten Endermen, and they all sought to lure in Glowstone and his crew into the storm and kill them there. Remington was right; they would need those fire charges.

The darkest hour had begun. All that everyone in Minecraftia could do was fight along with the headlong flight.

_In an isolated system, the energy can only increase._

**TPoM**

"Thank Notch that we have a fire here. I don't know how the rest of them are standing it down with the cannons," Aria acknowledged thankfully. The two of us were sitting in the living room under the decks of the ship, waiting around the fire in case Mike needed us very quickly from the door. The other five were waiting in the cannon room, scouting through those glass-less windows for any sign of an enemy.

Prae had been reluctant to leave me with another girl. After all, I had been friends with Aria for long before the Raid of the Endermen had begun. My girlfriend hadn't been entirely convinced, but here I was, right?

"Yeah. The storm doesn't look that good," I replied, and it was true. It had been forty five minutes since we had been talking with Mike as a group, and the storm had hit us fifteen ago. A loud burst of thunder cracked the sky at that moment, and Aria flinched. She saw me staring at her, and brushed her hair back nervously.

"I guess I'm still a little skittish. After all these years, and we're out at sea with shadows hunting us and I still get scared when there's thunder," she sighed, although she smiled as she said it.

"You'll always be scared. Remember when we used to do homework together?" I mused, wandering down memory lane.

"Isn't this not exactly the greatest situation to be talking math homework?" Aria joked, and I giggled a little bit. "What boy laughs like that?" she teased me, and I stopped with an effort.

"I don't know. Maybe it's just the heat of the situation. This world really is hell at this point, and something funny just naturally gets the best of you, am I right?" I thought aloud.

"No," Aria replied simply, and I stared at her with narrow eyes.

"Shut up," I said back just as basically, and she smiled and flicked red-brown hair out from over her green eyes.

"Is there something I can tell you, and do you promise not to tell anyone else?" she whispered, and I raised an eyebrow while I nodded. She cupped her hands around her mouth and said into my ear, "I think that I kind of like Skyler."

I broke away, making a mock surprised face. "What? I can't believe this!" I said quietly, but she got that it was implied to be like that.

"I really don't know why. He's just nice in general, and he totally is awesome at slaying monsters, I guess. And he's short, too, so I don't feel totally out of his league," she shrugged.

"And I'm not totally awesome at monsters?" I questioned playfully, and she punched my arm lightly.

"He's also single. You know how fallen I was for you back in Imperial Plains," she responded, and I raised my other eyebrow.

"You liked me?" I queried, and she nodded vigorously.

"Wasn't that kind of obvious? I mean, I came over for help with homework every day, and a lot of the time I wouldn't even need your help, anyways," she explained.

"OK, moving on. But Skyler's nineteen, and you are thirteen. Hopefully your math still isn't so terrible that you can't find the difference of those two ages," I teased her.

The door from the cannon room burst open, and out stepped Remington with Jessica's arm locked in his, like they were going to dance. They noticed as they came out, and dropped their arms as Remington turned to me.

"We have spotted the target officially, sire. The shadow beasts are at the very center of the storm, and we are about a hundred meters away from them. Shall we load the fire charges?" he said hurriedly.

"Let me go up and ask Mike. Maybe we can go across the storm around the Endermen's ship," I replied, and a lurch of the ship affirmed that this was not an option.

"That was freakin' wind!" shouted Clara's voice from inside the cannon room. "They're just pulling us in, like some supernatural tractor beam! Escape is not an option, we're going to have to fight back against the bastards."

I ran up and kicked the door open to the deck outside, and was met by a huge slosh of water. Except it wasn't a bucket being poured on me. This was actual _rain_. Struggling up the stairs, I reached Mike, who was shivering. His teeth were visible, but not from grinning for once. He was grimacing, trying to steer the ship away from a huge light source to the north. It was pulsating a creepy purple, and it confirmed my fear; the Endermen were definitely here.

"Hold off, Mike. Just let the wind carry us in. We're going to have to fight our way out of this mess, or our ship's going to wreck herself against all this wind anyways," I alerted Mike, and he turned to me uncertainly.

"Are you sure? The storm's a nasty piece of work, but the Endermen are obviously strong enough to create it. It's this dark outside, and it's not even four o' clock in the afternoon yet!" he protested, making a case for it. He reluctantly dropped his hands from the wooden wheel, though, and the ship made a hard turn right into the wind that carried us north.

"Let's try and get the ship to have the left side of our ship facing the Endermen so that we can fire off at them with the fire charge cannons," I suggested to Mike, and he looked back at me as he worked on this task, bewildered.

"We have fire charge cannons?" he asked, dumbfounded, and I nodded. "Damn, Alex. This is going to get ugly."

"No kidding," I replied, and hurried back down to the cannon room. Sopping wet, I walked into the room as Jessica was lighting the first cannon. Smoke blew up in front of the dispenser, and the fire charge sailed through the stormy air and missed the Endermen ship by a few meters.

"Not bad for a first shot," she assured herself, and Remington lit the next one. It blew up with a great bang, and this fire charge flew through the sky and slashed through one of the Endermen's masts. Some cheers went up from our small group, but they wouldn't last long as a Wither Skull splashed near us, causing a great spray of greenish water to arc into the air.

"They're firing Wither Skulls? Now, that's not even fair," Prae commented, and lit her fire charge cannon. She was the first one to get an effective hit on target, as it crashed into the deck and exploded. We were now close to the Endermen, and I had begun to hear their voices.

"Xerox, the ship has stopped trying to pull away!" one said as another Wither Skull hit the water near us. These Endermen were really bad shots.

"Good. The closer they are, the easier it will be to assure that the damn Glowstone fool is dead once and for all," another responded. It was that same name, Xerox. He must have been one of the Endermen's leaders or something, because he had been in the Nether when Anna had died. And Will had been infected….

We had continued to hit them effectively on target, but the Endermen just continued to smother the fire with that white stone I had seen in the Nether portal so long ago. It certainly wasn't from any of the main three Realms, so was it from wherever the Endermen originated from? Either way, the destruction we created was swiftly rendered useless by the shadow beasts placing the white stone wherever holes in the ship appeared. They still hadn't been able to get a hit on target on our ship.

At last, we were within ten meters of their ship. The winds were still carrying us closer to them steadily, and in the sky a swirl of clouds had been created, circling around the Endermen's ship as a midpoint. Remington, Skyler, Clara, and I all headed back to the deck of the ship, leaving Jessica, Prae, and Aria to begin putting fire charge pressure on the opposing ship. The storm was really getting bad.

"Winds at over forty miles per hour," Mike alerted us, straining to keep the starboard side of the ship pointed toward the Endermen. "I don't know if I can even keep her from smashing into their ship."

I had suited up in armor along with Remington, and Skyler and Clara were quickly fitting their iron suits on. "That's alright," I assured him, clicking down the visor of my helmet over my eyes and taking Monarch out from my toolbelt. "We'll just have to fight them off the old fashioned way."

Finally, due to the extremely short range, a Wither Skull hit the front of our ship. It shook the entire boat, and I almost slipped on the wet ground. The rain was still pounding down at a rate that I had never seen before, and it might impact the ship's damage level. The place that the Wither Skull had hit was smoking, although it was luckily just an aerodynamic feature.

I looked over at the Endermen's ship. There was one that was reaching over to fill in a small hole in the wood with more of that white stone when a splash of water went up from the water below. The water hit it, and it jumped backward and said "Ouch!", before presuming to place down the white stone.

This struck me as interesting. I investigated their ship. There was a wood column built up that made a roof four meters up from the deck so that the Endermen could stand with some space above. But the roof was blocking the water, and when the water had hurt the Endermen from coming over the side-

That was it. Endermen were damaged by water. This sentence was so important to me as I realized it that I just shouted it to my friends. "Endermen are damaged by water!" I yelled, and they all turned to me.

"What do you mean?" Clara asked, and I presumed to explain what I had seen and how their ship was built. It all meant sense now.

"OK, new battle strategy. The four of us get on their ship and try and destroy their roof. I honestly have no idea why they picked the ocean as a place to try and capture us if water kills them," I alerted them.

"Power can make the greatest empires careless and naïve," Remington shrugged.

"So are we just going to make intellectual quotes, or are we going to get on their ship and make them go to hell?" Skyler retorted, and the four of us readied up at the edge of the ship. The Endermen grew closer, and I held out Monarch. Remington had his diamond broadsword in both hands, Skyler held his iron Mt. Wolfpack sword, and Clara held a small iron dagger along with a diamond axe with a hollowed out center.

"What kind of weapon is that?" I queried, and she glanced down at it.

"A tomahawk, I call it. Good for short range for combat, however gruesome, and I can use it to chop up the wooden roof faster," she responded, and turned back to the ship.

As it grew closer, I jumped for the edge along with Skyler, and we grabbed onto the edge. An Enderman stepped up close to me, and as I struggled to get to my feet, it raised one of its long black claws to slash me with. At the last second, a fire charge sailed up and pounded its face, making it stumble backwards while being set on fire. Not a very pleasant combination, or at least in my opinion.

I looked back down at where the cannons of our ship were, and Prae gave me a thumbs-up from her small window above her cannon. I smiled and got to my feet along with Skyler while Clara and Remington jumped over the five meter gap. The Enderman that had caught fire came back toward me, trying to make an especially painful blow by combining claws with flames. Ducking, I rolled on the floor and slashed its leg while Skyler jabbed his iron sword in the chest. The Enderman shut its purple eyes and slumped to the ground, its chest open and revealing another one of those turquoise pearls. It flew into my toolbelt, and I checked it. I now had six of those pearls.

Remington and Clara both got to their feet as another Enderman reached us, swinging its claw at Remington this time. Clara made very much the same move as me, except she dug her diamond tomahawk into the Enderman's back and the dagger into the back of its head. It let out a cold scream that rippled my vision a bit. Although I was getting better with being able to understand them, it still felt like I was going insane when it happened sometimes.

There hadn't been more than fifteen Endermen on the ship before, and we had already killed two of them easily. "OK, start tearing up the roof," I ordered, and we all got out axes and began chopping the wooden supports above us, Clara with her bloody tomahawk. We had cleared out half of the roof when three more Endermen advanced on us. They glanced up at the sky where the roof had previously been from under some remaining wooden supports and began placing more of that white stone.

"Oh, no you don't!" Clara cried excitedly, and threw her tomahawk through the air. It spun until it embedded itself in one of the attacker's faces, and it was spurting purple blood on the ground.

We continued in slaughtering the other two, and a fire charge went up and destroyed the white stone that they had placed. Apparently, it was not very explosive resistant, and it was burst easily in a matter of seconds. The four of us continued up toward the upper deck, all the while destroying all of the wooden supports that we could. At least, we reached it, and seven Endermen greeted us. There was one in the center that they seemed to be protecting that had its arms extended toward the sky, and wind was shooting out of them into the hurricane-like storm through a small hole in the roof.

I slashed one with Monarch, and crouched down as another took a swipe at me. We were able to make quick work of them, relatively at least, and fire charges shot up from our ship to aid us in destroying the roof. At last, all of the Endermen bodies lied on the ground around us except for the leader creating the storm. It stopped shooting up wind and turned to me, and the rain, wind, thunder, and lightning all faded gradually.

"I am Xerox the Enderman. Glowstone, you must grasp the fact that you will die, no matter how many of us you succeed in killing. The Enderdragon is too powerful for a Minecraftian like you," the Enderman said in his icy voice.

"Maybe I'll die," I said triumphantly back to him, "But we'll stop you bastards no matter what."

And with that, I stepped up to the Enderman and stuck Monarch through its head. Xerox didn't put up a fight at all, and just slumped on the wooden pole of the mast, dead.

** And so ends the Endermen's reign of power at sea in the Overworld. And we're also given a lot more insight on how this all began.**

** What will Alex and the Imperial Battalion find at the Temple of the Overworld? Will Notch prevent the secrets of Earth from being revealed? And will Herobrine survive? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	28. The Gateway to Hell

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** I have almost nothing to say here in the author's note this time around. Sorry, but it's the cold and bitter truth.**

** What I do have to say is important, though. I won't be doing the prequel to TPoM. It just seems more and more like a flop of a story. Don't worry, I'll still be doing the sequel, and it shall be epic. And I have a confirmed idea on what to write about after the TPoM sequel is closed out.**

** So yeah. On to the review responses!**

**DreamlessYuki****: I'm glad to hear such enthusiasm! Thanks!**

**Night wl****: Go tell her that Prae isn't a bastard for me, and only someone who didn't actually care for the book would consider her as such. You are frowned upon, person Night wl is describing. Just kidding, but don't call Prae names. :D**

**FullMoonFlygon****: I know what it means now, and I want to see the art! Oh, God. It sounds so weird, it just would be cool, I suppose. And no Alex-Aria pairing. Aria's just into him, but he doesn't feel the same way. Sorry, Aria.**

**Exb756****: Xerox the Enderman? What, is there something significant about that name that I missed?**

**SimonStormCloak****: That's not good, I'd rather smell brownies.**

**SSSushiMonster****: No, I just don't want to write it that way. Besides, it is Alex's story in the first place, not Clara's or Skyler's.**

**Sea of Fire****: FTW indeed.**

**Mellifluousness****: I guess that you can be the captain. :D And I didn't know that's what S.S. stood for. I'm sorry, oh Greatest Grammar Nazi Ever. (I just coined and copyrighted it with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. So don't use that term.) O_o**

**HarryPotterEncyclopedia24****: Well, you two are pretty well respected among the community as well, so why not?**

**PigeonFligher****: I like the concept of energy. I don't know why, it's just cool for some reason.**

**VA842867****: Inspiring indeed. ;D**

**MinecrafterRin****: Please don't, though. I might get blamed.**

**N00blord****: Just saying, your reviews are Flu's worst nightmare…**

**DarkPanther101****: To your questions: not in TPoM, possibly, and they eventually will.**

** All right, that's it. Expect the responses to be shorter because I have so many. But that's not a bad thing, keep them coming! :D**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 28**

**The Gateway to Hell**

The winds were dying down around us. Xerox was lifeless on the ground in front of Clara, Remington, Skyler and I. Its chest opened to reveal another one of those turquoise pearls. I felt it in my hands, and picked up to stare at its complexion. The sunlight broke through the parting clouds, and I could see the pearl's contents twist, swirl, and tumble around the inside. Tucking it back into my toolbelt, I turned to the others.

"Alright, then. Let's get back on our ship and move on to the island," I ordered, and another fire charge hit the ship near the bottom.

"Actually, I have a sinking feeling," Clara sputtered, and the ship began descending into the ocean. Another one of the fire charges had destroyed the hull of the Endermen's ship, and now we were going to drown if we didn't get back on ours. The ship was already halfway submerged in the blue water, and it was splashing on to the edges of the lower deck.

Suddenly, I remembered something from a long time ago. My memory took me back to the destruction of Imperial Plains, back on the very top of the Royal Guardsmen building. Frank and Natalie, trying so hard to let me escape the destruction of the city. Back then, I was their only hope. I supposed I still was, even if they were gone from the Overworld. But on that skyscraper, they had used what pearls they had left. They could teleport you if your threw them.

I checked my toolbelt. I had ten of them. "Quick, guys. Take these," I said hurriedly, as water was now splashing onto the lower deck at great speeds. We would be in the water in less than fifteen seconds. Once all four of us had one each, I threw mine onto the deck of the S.S. Wolfpack. The others followed suit, and the band once again enclosed my stomach. The sensation was very peculiar, like being squeezed to death, and my vision changed to the deck of our ship. Clara and Skyler appeared next to me, and Remington popped into existence on the rope ladder. But not quite. He was just off of it, and his head bounced on every rung on the way down from gravity until he finally found a grip on a wooden rung more than halfway down.

"Oh, my! What a peculiar way to get back on the boat," he shouted down, and quickly descended to the wooden deck. The four of us walked over to the edge of the S.S. Wolfpack and stared down at the sinking remains of the Endermen's ship only about ten meters away. Only the very top of the mast was still above water, and bubbles from it causing pressure in the ocean slowly floated to the surface. Through them, we could see the hull sinking down, flooded and useless along with the many Enderman bodies. It seemed that they would be buried at sea.

"Well, that was quite the battle! I dare say that I'm glad that you even got back onto my boat alive, considering that it started sinking!" Mike grinned down at us as we turned back from the ocean's raging waters. Now that the sun was visible, I could see that it would be setting soon in the direction we were going. After asking Mike, I proved that this was correct; it was six o' clock. Even if we were going strong, Mike said, we still had two hours left until we reached the island because of the Endermen attack and the winds slowing us down. "An hour delay is much better than being skinned alive and buried at sea, I say," he had commented.

I walked back downstairs from the deck of the boat, sopping wet. It didn't matter, really. The wooden floor in the living room was covered by woolen carpets in most parts of it, and soon I was drying off by the fire. The others followed suit, except for Clara, who stayed in the crow's nest to aid Mike in his sailing. The heat of the fire soon died down, and as the last embers faded away to leave nothing but ash, I had already dried off along with the others. I leaned back in my seat, and looked up at the clock above the trapdoor down to the hallway with our bedrooms. It was already fifteen past; we would be there in just over an hour and a half.

As the fire faded away for good, I walked over to the trapdoor and went down into the corridor with all of our bedrooms. Maybe we only had a small amount of time to rest, but I was tired and sore from the fighting on the Endermen's ship.

There were two beds in the room, and I sat down on the one next to a glass window facing out into the ocean. Back in Imperial Plains, there had been many pictures and sculptures detailing the underwater wastelands that were what we were passing through at the moment. There were squid propelling themselves around in the blue waters, along with many small fish that could be caught for food. We didn't need food at the moment, though. All of the Imperial Battalion had brought plenty of food for each individual. In my toolbelt, I had ten pieces of bread, eight pieces of cooked pork, and four cooked chicken breasts. I took one out and munched on it to try and keep my hunger levels up.

After a few moments, I began to strip off my armor. First, my helmet came off to reveal my hair. It was slightly ruffled, considering that it had been pressed down under pressure of my iron helmet. I matted it down, trying to straighten it out of habit, almost like a cat. It didn't help much, but at least I didn't look completely like a slob. Proceeding with unbuckling the rest of my armor, I was back in my normal clothes. While we had been waiting out our departure in Novum Eboracum, the tailor who had helped me with the wool for the lighthouse had sewn me some new jeans without the rip from the Wither attack.

My bed looked a lot more comfortable than it had in a while. I laid down in it, covered by the blankets, and as my field of vision faded, I say Prae enter the room and look at me. It was too late to have a conversation, though. Notch had pulled me in for another link.

**TPoM**

The slow rocking of the S.S. Wolfpack sailing along the ocean was replaced by a steady floating sensation. I rubbed my forehead, and found that I was lying on my back. There was grass under my body, and it was soft and silky on my arms. Slowly, I sat up to check my surroundings. A feeling of vertigo came over me, and black comets crossed my vision.

"What the hell…?" There was a reason for the vertigo, it seemed. I was on the edge of a land mass that happened to be floating high in the air. A slight wind blew through the air, and a few leaves from a golden tree a few blocks away rustled with the gust. On my floating land, I could see a number of suspended islands that were made of different types of stone and topped off with grasses like what I was standing on and light green trees. On my island, there were few of the green trees along with the golden one, and a lizard standing on its hind legs waddled closer to me. It was black, but its underbelly was a dark purple. It almost reminded me of a-

"Don't worry. That's a Moa, not an Enderman in disguise," a familiar voice said, and Notch walked up next to me. It was almost like he took the suspicion right out of my head and countered it. "A Moa is passive, or at least most of the time, so you can just leave it alone. Their actually a pretty interesting creature if you do the research."

"Is this the Aether?" I breathed, taking in my amazing surroundings. The clouds actually flew below the land masses, and some of the clouds were a light blue. If I remembered correctly, you could actually walk on these clouds and mine them to make parachutes like the ones that Prae and I had used to escape Magnam Civitatem, or to make masts for the naval ships in the Overworld or the Aerships in the Nether.

"Yes. My home, the land of the brave, honest, and righteous. Someday, I hope that you will come here as part of my legions of Valkyries, but that is for your actions to decide," he responded, and looked at me with a sort of strained smile. In this moment, I noticed that I was almost as tall as him, only about four inches shorter.

The sun hung high in the sky, completely unmoving. I remembered how we had been taught back in the Imperial Plains school that a certain spirit made it so that it never set in the Aether. I didn't feel like imagining exactly how that could be done. "What is it that you need me to do, sir? We're almost at the Temple of the Overworld. That's where we are supposed to go, isn't that correct?" I queried.

"Please, Alex, don't refer to me as 'sir'. And yes, you are on the right track. Your new ship's captain is doing a rather splendid job, wouldn't you say?" he replied.

"Oh, yeah, I guess so," I agreed reluctantly. Maybe Mike had us on the right track toward the Temple of the Overworld, but I still had my concerns about his true intentions.

"I know he may not seem the most trustworthy person, but you must have faith with the people that you are traveling and fighting with. After all, without him, your Imperial Battalion would not have any idea on how to reach the Temple of the Overworld in the first place," he assured me, and flattened his hair back a little nervously. "But what you need to know now, Alex, is very important.

"You should know by now that you need six blaze rods for the next part of your task. But there is more to it than just that," Notch explained, and waved his hand to conjure up another one of those teal pearls. It floated in the air ominously between us. "What do you know of these?" he asked me.

Even while it was floating and moving, the pearl's insides swirled and tumbled in that weird fashion. "Whenever any of us kill an Enderman, one of those opens up at out of where their heart should be. I don't think they craft anything, but then again, I've never actually tried it," I mused, mesmerized by the Ender Pearl's swirling image. Why was it that I couldn't break my gaze from it without forcing myself to? "Also, if you throw them, it teleports to where it lands. Supposedly that's not minor, I just forgot."

Notch nodded contently. "All of that is true, except that it actually _does_ craft something. Something very important, as a matter of fact. If you are to beat the source of the Endermen-"

"The Enderdragon?" I guessed, cutting him off.

"Yes, yes. If you are to defeat it, you must craft something using the blaze rods and these Ender Pearls," Notch explained.

I thought this over for a second. "Well, we only need six blaze rods, right? And I've already got six Ender Pearls. So we just need the blaze rods, then."

Notch frowned a little bit at this suggestion. "Actually, when you are crafting an Eye of Ender, which is the item you'll need, you are combining a single Ender Pearl with a clump of blaze powder."

My heart sank at this new information. "And blaze powder is two for every blaze rod. So we need twelve Ender Pearls, then?"

"I'm afraid so," Notch told me solemnly. "But there's a bright side, after all. You just have to kill six Endermen and take their Ender Pearls."

This caused me to laugh a little bit. "I don't know if Prae would be too happy about deliberately slaughtering mobs, though."

Notch shrugged. "She was alright with the concept of killing blazes, though, right?"

"I guess so," I muttered, breaking our eye contact and looking out at the floating islands around us. It really was a beautiful sight. But why was Notch criticizing Prae? Well, he wasn't _really_, but he was coming awfully close.

"And also, when you reach the Temple of the Overworld, you must travel to the Nether from there. There's a Nether and Aether portal there, and Herobrine is obviously trapped in the Nether. So that's what you need to do once you reach the Temple," he explained.

"Is that it? Because dreams seem to take up a lot of time relative to reality," I asked, and he nodded.

"Indeed, that's all I have to say for now. Although it might have been abrupt, you really needed to know that," he responded, and clasped the Ender Pearl to make it disappear. Once again, he took out the diamond ring and left it suspended in the air in flames, dissolving the world around us. For the millionth time, I wondered who Emily was…

**TPoM**

As my eyes opened, back in bed on the S.S. Wolfpack, I half expected my ears to pop. After all, my soul (?) had just been transported from the Aether back to my living, breathing body in a millisecond. Prae was collecting some things on a workbench, and she placed Murder in its slot on her back. She was facing the wall, though, and couldn't tell that I was awake.

"How exactly do you carry that thing around like that?" I queried, and she shook a little in surprise. Turning to face me, she brushed some of her hair out from in front of her eye.

"I don't know. There was something all the kids would say back in Magnam Civitatem, something like 'girl power'. Who gives a squid, though?" she replied, strutting over to me and pecking me on the cheek in greeting. Or maybe just as a response. I don't know, sometimes I get too worked up over me and Prae's relationship.

I shrugged and opened the door for her. Considering that we would be reaching the island soon, it seemed that everyone was readying up. "I don't have a clue what you're talking about, anyways. Then again, I wasn't running around yelling girl power myself, was I?" I joked. "I guess I'm just glad that I don't have a broadsword."

Prae giggled a little bit. "You're more based on agility in fighting, whereas I just hit the mobs in the face," she explained, then frowned. "But only if they're mean, though."

There was an awkward silence after this. "Yeah," I said, breaking the tension. "I'm going to get all my gear ready. We shouldn't be there in long, right?"

"Actually," Prae began, and then paused to look at a clock on the wall. "We should be there in no longer than five minutes, tops. See you, then," she told me, leaving me to myself.

I made sure that all of my things were packed up. I had a bunch of bread and cooked pork in case anyone got hurt or just hungry in general. Obviously, there was Monarch and my armor. Plus, it was always a good idea to keep some torches at hand. I also had a crafting table for any given moment, and a stack of sand for elevators. Maybe I didn't have much, but it was certainly enough for the expedition.

After leaving my room and going back up to the deck, I encountered most of the Imperial Battalion on the top of the ship. There was an island not too far from us now, clearly visible in the sunset, and we were headed straight toward it. Soon, Jessica came out from below to make all eight of us assembled up here, Mike carefully guiding the ship toward the island.

An evening breeze was picking up as the sky darkened from its orange tint to a blacker one. "Once we reach the island, we'll just park the ship on the outskirts of the land and tie it up with a fence and string. The Temple of the Overworld is in the very center of the island. We're lucky, after all, that this is the only island in the huge chain in the Sunset Sea that isn't completely covered in jungles. That would be harder to navigate than the plains here," Mike explained to us as we drew close to the island. Clara and Skyler were on the edge, preparing to rope themselves down in order to dock the ship on the island.

At last, we stopped, and I slipped on my armor while the others prepared themselves in a similar fashion. If we were supposed to go to the Temple of the Overworld, then the odds were that the Endermen were seeking out the mythical island as well. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised to learn that those Endermen that had found us at sea were actually sailing around, looking for the island.

Slowly, we climbed off of the ship carefully, our feet hitting the ground jerkily. "Maybe we should have just placed down a ladder," Aria commented as everyone gained their footing. By now, it was dark out, and Mike held up a torch in his hand to lead the way. He was the one who knew his way around here, anyways.

The single, flickering light source other than the moon created a sort of ominous feel. Mike's torch lit up our armor, making us all look in uniform as we were all dressed out in iron padding. Our group pressed forward, slowly moving away from the crashing waves of the sea and out into the plain. The island wasn't too large according to Mike, and it hadn't seemed like too long in my dream to walk to the Temple.

The grass was a ripe green at our feet, unlike in Khalida's prophecy, and small red and yellow flowers sprouted up here and there. The wind was comforting, even as it blew back our hair if it hung out from our helmets and generally caused the air to feel colder as it shifted around us. There was a very different feel to it than the gale that had enveloped us earlier in the day, sweeping heavy rains around our ship. It still dumbfounded me as to why an Enderman would set out to sea amid a heavy storm when they were hurt by water.

"It shouldn't be too much farther now," Mike assured us. Sure enough, a few seconds after he made that comment, the dirt road appeared where the grass had been trampled by previous explorers.

"Oh! This is the way to the Temple. It was in Khalida's prophecy," I exclaimed, and I walked in front of Mike with my own torch in front. The dome wasn't visible at the moment, but it shouldn't have been too much longer. Even as we drew closer to our goal, I was still a little bit apprehensive. After all, who knew exactly how big the Temple actually was, and we needed to find the Nether portal in it.

It wasn't too much longer after all. The dome stood before us in the night sky, silver and reflecting the little light that shone down from the stars all over the place off of the iron architecture. There were two grand doors on the outside made of mahogany wood, and I remembered my house back in Imperial Plains made of the same material. It seemed that small memories were slowly flooding their way back into my mind at random intervals.

"Would anyone like to do the honors?" I asked as we stepped up to the large doors.

"I shall, in the name of courage, justice, and honor!" Remington declared, and pushed them open with both hands. The darkness intensified, and the world seemed bitter all of a sudden. The inside was dark, and Mike and I held up our torches to try and gauge our surroundings better. There were toppled chairs and rubble everywhere, and I carefully stepped over the various obstacles. We reached a chandelier that had fallen from the ceiling in the center of the room made of gold and a few emeralds and diamonds. There were four different corridors, two to the left and two to the right.

"Should we split up? I mean, it's kind of freaky in here with eight people, but with two…" Jessica sputtered.

"I think we should," suggested Clara. "We've got nothing to lose, after all. What are we looking for, anyways, Alex?"

"A Nether Portal. It'll take us directly to the Temple of the Overworld, and that's where Herobrine is trapped and where we can save him. And while we're there, we can get the blaze rods that we need," I replied. "And let's split up. I don't really care who goes with who…"

"I've got dibs on Alex!" Prae said, and walked over to me from behind a crushed beacon. I had never really understood what they did, but the one in front of me looked like it had gone through some pretty rough times.

"Alright, then. Two people for each tunnel. Since they're tunnels and they will echo noise, if you find anything just shout it back toward this hall," Skyler explained, walking off into the corridor second from the left. Aria shrugged and ran off after him.

We filtered into the different tunnels. Remington and Jessica went on the third one from the left, and Clara and Mike went through the one to the far right. Prae and I continued into the dark hallway to the far left. I held my torch out in front of us to give us some sense of direction, if any.

The hallway was cramped. The walls were stone, and the stone had writing on it. I didn't bother to stop long enough to read any of it, but it was messy handwriting and some of the words were completely unrecognizable.

There were a few bats in the corridor, and whenever they were disturbed, they would fly away distrustfully. At last, the torchlight began to fade against something purple, and Prae and I stopped at the end of the hallway.

There was a Nether Portal there. The gateway to hell had been reached.

**Yes, this chapter was kind of short with an abrupt ending, but it was still a legitimate chapter. Yes? No? Whatever.**

** What will happen in the Nether? What will the rest of the group find? And will Alex succeed in acquiring the ingredients for the Eye of Ender? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	29. Only the Good Die Young

** Hello once again, faithful readers!**

** And you all are very faithful, sticking with me during my decline. I had a million projects for school, so I wasn't able to update. Well, fear no more! I'm still trying to finish before the new year, and hopefully I can accomplish that goal. After all, it shouldn't take this long to update always.**

** So yeah. Short author's notes are sort of the norm, now, and also, I am not going to be doing review responses anymore just because of so many. It would take forever, especially with going back and forth between windows, and half of the time I work on the story I either don't have access to certain pages that are blocked like or I don't have internet access at all. If you have a really important question in your review, then I'll PM you about it. But a lot of the time it's just polite conversation that gives me more words unfairly. And I don't like that. I shouldn't be earning more words in the story just from talking about McDonald's, movies I've seen, or other crap like that.**

** No offense, of course, to the fans. It's just a hassle that kind of detracts from the actual experience of reading the story as opposed to reading my conversations with people who live thirty latitudes away from me. So yeah.**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 29**

**Only the Good Die Young**

"You know, now that I think of it, I really do not feel like going back to that hellhole," Prae commented, and I shifted my gaze from the portal to her.

"That makes two of us. Let's try and call out for the others. I don't want to go exploring this Temple," I suggested, and I cupped my hands around my mouth to magnify the sound of my voice. "Guys! We found the portal! Come back into our tunnel!"

My voice echoed off the walls and made its way down the tunnel toward the main pavilion where the tunnels branched off. Prae and I waited for a few seconds, and a couple muffled responses came back. None of them were my voice coming back at us, so I assumed that the others had received my message and were making their way back to us.

The Nether portal had caused the room's temperature to decrease drastically, although I was thankfully wearing my iron armor. Monarch was at my side, and I was anticipating mobs to begin hopping out of the purple wormhole at any given moment. There was a broken wooden chair, two of its legs snapped and one just plain missing. Prae was inspecting it, trying to find any signs of how it had collapsed.

"There's nothing to indicate what could have broken it. Doesn't look like it would be that comfortable had it been intact, anyways," she told me, drawing back from it. Where dust had been on it, there were now fingerprints from her hands. "Wait a second. What is this?"

She kneeled down next to a small stone object. It was a prism of sorts, except it looked strangely metallic. Black and sleek, there were small things atop it. They white with writing on them, stuff that said things like 'Pennsylvania Avenue' and meaningless numbers, with different colored bars above the writing. I picked up one with a red bar that read 'Indiana Avenue'. It couldn't have been larger than my fingertip.

"Do you have any idea what these are?" I questioned, and she shook her head in despair. "There's a note, too," I announced, picking it up. This was written on normal paper, but the writing was somehow in blue. It read '_Damn. Forgot it ended this Sunday. I only needed Illinois for fifty grand. I guess I'll just have to carry out Jeb's plan after all._'

The both of us read it over for what must have been ten times, and we couldn't put together what any of it meant. After deciding that it wasn't worth our time to try and figure out the message, we moved on to the black box. There was a small button of sorts, and when I pressed it, the top half of the box lifted upward. Now there was an array of keys with letters written on them, and a pad with two buttons below it.

Upper portion of the object lit up blue, and displayed a number of icons. I touched my hand to the pad, and a small arrow on the screen moved with my fingertips. I looked to Prae, who glanced back at me. She was just as clueless as I was about what this device did. Figuring that there was no use being cautious when you didn't even know if it was dangerous, I moved the arrow to a small button on the screen near the top and clicked the button next to the pad's left side, and the screen immediately turned white with a number of black letters all over it. All of it was incredibly confusing, and there was a small blinking black line in the middle of an 'a' and 'n' about midway up the screen. My finger slipped and I touched a long blank button on the keypad, and a space appeared between the two letters.

All of a sudden, the entire room began flickering. Almost like a cloud, it was becoming transparent, and we could see the others in a large group of six making their way toward us, looking around at the world destroying itself before our very eyes. "What the hell, what the hell, oh Notch what did I do?" I muttered, searching the keypad for something to reverse what I had done. There was a delete key in the upper right section of the keypad, and I quickly pressed it. The space delete itself, and the world stopped flickering.

"That was not normal…" Prae breathed, and I felt a hand to my heart. It was beating at an incredible speed out of adrenaline, and understandably. I shut the black box, careful not to catch anything else. The blue light that escaped from the crack where the two halves met slowly faded away, and I supposed that it was powering itself down.

The others hurried into our room, gasping for breath. Remington was leading the pack, helmet affixed carefully as to look as heroic and neat as possible. "Sire, that was quite the peculiar event! Are the both of you unharmed?" he greeted us in a hurry.

"What the hell was that?" Mike exclaimed, much more direct and to the point.

"I think we're all asking that question. Truth is, I have no idea. It has something to do with that black box," I explained, pointing toward the object. Now that I looked more closely at the box itself and not the pieces of paper that had been on it, there were a few wires that connected it to the Nether portal's side. The plugs stuck into it at an awkward angle, fitting in a crevice between two ridges of obsidian. "Now that I think of it, if it's here in the Temple of the Overworld, then we shouldn't be messing around with it."

"Isn't that the truth," Clara commented, taking her tomahawk back out. "Let's just leave it here for now. Maybe Herobrine will know something about it once we rescue him. Now are we going to the Nether or not?"

Shrugging, I set the box aside next to the Nether portal making sure not to break it. What could possibly happen if the thing broke in two?

"Ladies first," Skyler offered, and Aria laughed a little bit.

"Like I'm going to take that offer," she joked, shoving him forward. Skyler tugged at the collar of his chestplate, looking around at us. "Anyone else?" he stuttered.

I smiled a bit, and stepped forward with Monarch in a tight grip. Thank Notch the wooden handle extremely sturdy, or the diamond sword would've shot out from the welded point where I had crafted the two together so long ago. The purple wormhole stood before me, but I was determined. Stepping through it, I felt the familiar tingling sensation as I was transported to the Fourth Realm.

**TPoM**

The heat of the Nether didn't spare any time in encasing me. Although the portal I had just walked through made the temperature go down a little bit, I could feel sweat breaking out on my forehead. Luckily, the portal led to the center of a lobby. It wasn't exactly the most welcoming room for visitors, though.

Every inch of wall and floor was made of Netherbrick, including stairs that led up to the second floor. In many places, the floor was cracked and opened in crevices that went straight down to the lava below me. There were also a number of Zombie Pigman bodies dead on the ground. Their swords weren't all marked with the Endermen's symbol, leading me to believe that Herobrine's army had put up a fight. But exactly how long had they held?

Concerning living threats other than myself, there were no live mobs. I shouldn't be complaining, but it did felt kind of odd to be in the Nether of all places and not have a mob anywhere in sight. Even though the room was deserted, I gripped Monarch tighter. There was no use being careless in the Temple of the Nether.

I was seeking some comfort in staring at a block of glowstone. Maybe I looked a little insane staring at it like that, but warmth filled my veins. As long as there was glowstone nearby, I would be perfectly fine. Or so I thought.

The others progressively filtered through the portal. Aria was last, brushing her hair back absent-mindedly and loading an arrow into her bow. She had been acting a little bit awkwardly since she had confessed to me her crush on Skyler. Shrugging without even thinking that everyone else could see that body language, I waved off the subject from within my mind. It wasn't any of my business if she'd moved on.

"So what's the plan, then?" Jessica asked, holding up her iron sword. A small twang of pain coursed through my head, although I couldn't explain why.

"Sweep and clear, as they say," I responded, taking a quick head count. We were all here, and everyone had their iron armor suited up. "And make sure that you watch your step, too. I don't want anyone becoming smoked human, gutted and cooked."

It was indeed a good thing that I had warned them. There were a few times that someone got close to the crevices and sidestepped them. I stifled a laugh as I thought of what Khalida might have done in this situation. Surely she would've fallen, but then she would've drunk some fire resistance or something and be stuck under the Temple forever. Not the most pleasant thing that could happen to the average person.

We proceeded across the lobby around the stairs and made our way through a corridor. Here, it was safer, with a large decrease in the crevices in the floors. The ones that remained weren't wider than a palm, anyways. You could take a hop, skip, and a jump and be over one of them with no harm done. Of course, there was always the threat of mobs.

From this corridor, we reached another hallway. It wasn't a pretty sight.

There were numerous Zombie Pigmen lying down on the ground, of both Herobrine and the Endermen's factions, and they were all bloody, rotted, and just flat out lifeless. On the other side of the hallway was a group of five Zombie Pigmen. One of them was a little taller, and the places where the skin was not apparent, its flesh was turning green. I assumed that it meant that it was older or something, and the eight of us raised our weapons. We couldn't take our chances. If these were friendly undead, then we would have to make sure first before we let them fight along us.

One of them holding a golden sword that was stained with blood noticed us first. It snorted out some words in their language, and stared us down with interest. The older one turned to us, and it made some more squeals. All five of them were now looking at us, and they raised their swords above their heads. Aria and Mike loaded their bows tighter. If it came to it, they would knock two out of the greater picture as soon as the released the bowstring.

But instead of making an aggressive gesture, the Pigmen waited, twirling the swords in midair so that we could see both sides of the golden blades. "What in the world are they doing?" Prae muttered to me, and I examined them. I was just as confused, except I understood after I stared them down. The swords were golden with no mark on them. They were Herobrine's.

"They're friendly," I stated, and looked around at the Imperial Battalion. "Lower the bows. They're here to help." This cued a couple of looks from the others. They obviously didn't understand what I did. "I'm serious. Let's go."

The arrows stayed loaded, but Mike and Aria both lowered the aim of theirs. Only Prae seemed to trust my instinct. She had been with me when we escaped from the Nether the first time, after all. One of those Pigmen had been able to talk, after all. And if one could, then maybe one of these could.

The group of Pigmen stayed on their side of the hallway as we advanced forward. The older one continued to speak in their language, and I reached them. Prae and Remington flanked me, with everyone else in a mesh behind us. The undead swine did something similar, except there were only two flanking the one who I assumed was their leader. I stopped, and our two groups were at a standstill with each other.

"Do any of you know English?" I queried awkwardly. The four normal Zombie Pigmen made no response other than grunts, but the taller one nodded.

"I was an Elder in one of our old tribes," it spoke in a gruff voice. "There aren't any left now, thanks to the shadow people."

"Endermen," Mike corrected it boldly, and the Elder gave him a look of surprise. Not distaste, but surprise. "And that's what we're here for. They captured Herobrine, and we need him back and six blaze rods."

The Elder snorted to the other undead, who in turn lowered their swords. "Herobrine is our master, but he was taken. They took all of our Aerships, except for one that is still here. But the shadow people are guarding it," it explained. "If we obtain one of the Aerships, then we can chase down their fleet and save the Guardian of the Nether."

"And I shall be the one to lead the way! Of course, under your orders, sire," Remington announced, apologizing in a way to me. I grinned a little bit. It still felt kind of odd that he considered me the ruler of Novum Eboracum or something, but his personality was a good source of comic relief.

"Yeah. Do you know which way the harbor is? I saw it once in a dream, but I don't know the exact layout of this building," I told the Elder.

"Aye. We will lead you there and fight alongside you," it replied, and then let out a series of snorts and squeals to its brethren. They readied their swords, and we turned a corner into another large room.

There were more of the crevices here, and we carefully sidestepped them. Once we had almost reached the end of the room, one of the holes in the ground from where we had come from erupted with lava. It just spurted the red hot liquid all over its radius, sending up sparks and fire. We were well out of its range, but we had only been there a minute or two before.

From that room, we went through another corridor. There was a pile of debris, netherrack and netherbrick, that blocked a small doorway outside. There were docks, and the one right in front of us was the only one with an Aership in it. Although this might have been an encouraging sign, there were Zombie Pigmen swarming the netherbrick bridge onto the ship. On the ship itself was a single Enderman conversing with six blazes. Exactly the amount that we needed. I tried to hone in on what it was saying.

"_Our scouts have reported that Glowstone isn't here. You must stay vigilant, they need the rods that you cast when you die,_" it reported, and the blaze made a couple of clicking noises. On one of the golden rods that circled the fire that it's body was made of was the eye symbol that we had grown accustomed to. "_Of course they are a threat! We haven't heard back from the ship that was on the sea in the Overworld- No, I am _pretty_ sure that they didn't just get splashed. What are you talking about, you're MADE of fire!_"

"There is only one of the shadow people," the Elder confirmed, scanning. I crouched next to the pile of debris. From here, I would lead the way.

"There are too many of them for stealth," Skyler commented, and I nodded in agreement. Along with the blazes and Enderman, there were about fifteen hostile Zombie Pigmen. We were outnumbered, even though we weren't as bad of an underdog as usual.

"I agree. But do we really want to just jump out there and try to kill them all?" Clara wondered, readying her tomahawk and dagger in both hands.

One of the friendly Zombie Pigmen let out a grunt. "My colleague says absolutely," the Elder acknowledged. Though it was a joke, it wasn't as funny in our situation.

"What've we got to lose?" Jessica shrugged, and I pressed my hands against the barrier.

"I'll knock it over on three. Make sure that you get all of the blaze rods and keep the Ender Pearl. We're going to need both of them," I warned everyone, and readied myself. "One, two, three!" I knocked down the wall of rock and we charged out, catching the numerous amount of mobs by surprise. I readied Monarch once I got to my feet and let out a yell, slicing the diamond sword into an unsuspecting Zombie Pigman. Although it was effective, they seemed to have gotten stronger. The slash only made it lose blood, but it was just as dangerous as it had been before the injury.

"_It is glowstone! Expel them! The ship is ours!_" the Enderman screamed, causing a rebellion. The blazes moved to the upper deck as to stay away from us. It seemed that the Enderman had caused some level of fear in them, warning them that we wouldn't stop at anything to try and get their resources. That was good. Fear would scare the enemy, and a scared enemy meant a weaker enemy.

I drove Monarch into my opposition's skull, and hot brains burst out of the back of its head. Gross as it was, I punched it in the gut and threw it to the side. That threat was neutralized, at least, but we had a bigger problem on our hands.

The Enderman had grouped together a small group of Zombie Pigmen to help it roll the netherrack bridge that connected the Aership with the dock off, in turn letting the blazes and our only way to save Herobrine away. My opposition was down, so I jabbed Monarch into a Zombie Pigman who was struggling with Aria. The undead swine quickly grabbed its chest in pain and fell over dead. "Come on," I told her, "Let's get on the ship before they get away."

The two of us hurried over to the bridge. It was almost separated from the dock, and I leapt into the air in order to make it. Once my feet found ground, I ducked under a golden sword that was slashing through the air and hit the butt of Monarch into the leg of one of the hostile Zombie Pigmen. It crumpled over, and Aria fired an arrow into its eye. There were only two others, but we needed to get the bridge back on the dock before the Enderman could react.

Luckily, it only took me a strong thrust or two to get it back attached. The others were making their way onto the ship now, but all of our friendly Zombie Pigmen had died. They had turned out to not be the greatest of fighters. But as the saying goes, they had served their purpose well, true and beholden.

Once everyone had reached the dock of the ship and the two other hostile Zombie Pigmen were dead, Mike kicked away the bridge. He must have had a strong leg, for it bounced off and flew slowly into the molten rock below. He and Aria backed up in order to provide the rest of us cover while we dealt with the imminent threat.

Since no one was at the wheel of the ship, it had begun to slowly float away from the dock. There was no one to make it do otherwise, so it just continued onward until we were completely suspended over a sea of fire. Unlike in the Overworld, if you fell off, there would be no second chance.

The Enderman was waiting at the top deck, and the blazes were advancing down, three on either stairwell. The ship seemed to be built very similarly to ours, except for the fact that it flew instead of floated on water. The blazes were the first thing on my mind right now, though, as a volley of six fireballs flew through the air.

I rolled to my left, feeling the heat of the Nether double for a split second as a fireball sailed where I had been just a moment before. It went through the air and crashed into a stalagmite that was hanging from the ceiling, making the tip of it chip and fall off into the sea of fire, erupting in flames on contact.

"Make sure that you collect all of the blaze rods!" I shouted, charging one with Monarch. It slashed through the fire, making no immediate impact until it sliced through one of the blaze rods that circled around the mobs. It staggered backwards, losing strength from one of its power sources. Grinning, I sidestepped another fireball from a blaze on the other side of the ship. This would be easy, considering that I had taken mob fighting classes back in Imperial Plains. All you had to do was slice three of the rods, and they would be rendered helpless. The last one would fall to the ground for the killer.

Arrows flew over my head into the blazes behind the one I was fighting on the bottom of the stairwell at small intervals. Mike and Aria were providing very adequate cover fire. Prae and Clara were both on my side, slashing away at the blazes in front of the three of us to make sure that they didn't get away with their blaze rods. Prae hacked away with Murder the iron broadsword while Clara made quick, clean kills with her tomahawk and dagger duo.

Soon enough we had cleared our side of the stairwell, and when I looked back at the other side, I saw that there was only one more blaze to kill. Jessica was looking down at it, raising her iron sword to slash apart the last blaze rod when the Enderman teleported right behind her. There was no time to warn Jessica. The Enderman's claws sank deep into her back as an arrow flew from the bottom of the ship, ripping the last blaze's power source in two. It didn't matter, though. Jessica was as good as dead.

"NO!" shouted Remington in vain, pushing aside Skyler and throwing his massive diamond blade from a couple feet back. It pierced the Enderman, or rather, ripped apart its head and clattered to a stop on the top deck. The claw exited Jessica's body, taking a large number of droplets of blood with it. The rest of the Enderman's body fell backward, split head and all, lifeless on the upper deck of the ship.

Jessica lay on the top of the stairs, a small pool of blood spilling out around. Remington was crouched next to her, holding her hand up, trying to hold on to a pulse. "My lady, don't walk to the light," he muttered, concentrated on her eyes. The irises were normal, but the white area around them was lined with purple marks. There was no way to save us from the Enderman's disease if she was infected in the head.

All of us circled the young girl, hoping for Remington to find a sign of life. Prae's fingers were clamped tight around, her fingernails actually cutting into my skin with stress. Now wasn't the time to object, though. At last, after moments of waiting, Remington dropped Jessica's hand to the stairs of the ship, shaking his head. I guess they really had had something going, but that was clearly done now.

Our Aership drifted randomly through the fiery air. Far off in the distance, up a cavern that the Endermen's Nether base was, a single Aership was exiting the opening of the cavern. The shadow people, as the Zombie Pigman Elder had called them, weren't going to let us accomplish our goals as easily as we would've liked.

There was a saying back in Imperial Plains: only the good die young. Maybe that was just part of fate, or a coincidence. But Jessica was gone, and my hatred burned like an open wound. I wasn't going to let them accomplish _their _goals as easily as they would've liked.

**TPoM**

They'd stolen Resistance equipment, deserted the forces they were supposed to be loyal to, and attacked Stockholm. Maybe they had been successful, but Richter and Hudson were in deep shit with General Walker. And if they had stormed Stockholm, then General Walker had absolutely no doubt that they knew what to do next.

At this moment, she was back in Manchester, England. It was the Resistance's home base on the European front of the war, and she was walking along a metal catwalk above the main Communications Building. Really, she was inside the building, suspended over the hundred people or so that controlled all of the technical lines that went out to squads, helicopters, air support, submarines, and really anything else. There was a room on the catwalk, though, and that was where General Walker was headed.

Opening the door, she pushed a strand of her hair out from in front of her eye. Her hair was short, typical military length for a woman, even though she was allowed to grow it out since she was never actually in the field. But as she said, "You respect those working with you by being like them." And growing her hair past her shoulders was considered different to her.

There was a single man at the main console regulating all of the machines, making sure that all of the conversations were legal and loyal to the Resistance. As soon as he noticed her, he stood and gave her a salute. "General Walker, ma'am. How may I be of service?" he said respectfully.

"Give me an override of all systems. I've got a message to give out," she requested.

"More on the two SSFS men missing?" he responded, typing some things in a large keyboard, a large screen flashing many different messages.

"No," the General responded solemnly. "Something much worse."

He clicked another button, and the screen flashed with frequency and the word 'override' in red. "She's all yours, ma'am."

She walked over to the microphone, and held down the button that made her voice actually transmit to all of the Resistance radios in Europe. "All friendly call-signs. This is General Walker, and this is a Code 376 message.

"As you all know, two of our Swedish Special Forces Squad operatives have gone rogue. They are confirmed to have attacked Anonymous' new base in Stockholm, and their raid was highly successful. The two of them are to be brought in for questioning on sight.

"But what is more important right now is the Resistance President's daughter. She has been captured through a plane hijacking in Germany. They are seeking out the President, who is still missing near Berlin where the plane crashed, along with five German Special Forces Squads. They are all M.I.A. Any word on them is yet to be found.

"The President's daughter is being held hostage in Berlin, in a building on the western side of the New Berlin Wall. If they find the President, they will use her to give up everything we have. Launch codes for weapons, plans we have, ideas we have to reverse the Mojang curse. This is a high level alert, and we need both of them alive as soon as possible.

"All available call-signs are to report to Berlin for an extraction mission. This cannot go wrong. Our very way of life depends on it."

** Again, sorry about the really slow update, but I'm pretty sure that this chapter delivered. And don't worry, my friends; next chapter will be the saving of Herobrine!**

** How will Remington deal with Jessica's death? Will the rest of the Imperial Battalion make it out of the Nether alive? And what will Sergeant Richter do next? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	30. The Guardian of the Nether

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** As you can see, I didn't procrastinate with this chapter. So here it is, and they finally do something that you all have wanted them to for a while!**

** Oh yeah, Jessica just died. The start of this chapter is supposed to be sad. Whatever, A/N doesn't really count now, does it?**

** Anyways, had to get this chapter out before Hurricane Sandy hits. Might lose power, might not. I'm pretty far inland in Virginia, but there's a window right next to me as I type, and it is absolutely pouring rain.**

** And tomorrow is the release of Assassin's Creed 3! So pumped! :D**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 30**

**The Guardian of the Nether**

Exhausted, I slumped down onto the netherbrick deck. Sitting, waiting for something. For what, I didn't know. But there must have been something that we could do to respect Jessica. Because it hurt a lot for your group to go from eight to seven and not even be able to have any say in it.

Remington himself was really shaken up over the loss of Jessica. They must really have had something together, because he wasn't in good ship. Still kneeling over her body, at a sort of loss for words I supposed. But wasn't he supposed to be the strong one? The one who would never back down from the Endermen because of his heroic spirit?

I glanced down at my left arm. On my wrist were four small cuts that were bleeding from Prae gripping onto me and digging her nails into my hands. I didn't care. Blood was a small price to pay compared to your best friend's life. I let it drip onto the deck without caring.

Mike was beginning to adjust the masts of the ship so that we could begin our pursuit of the Endermen. Even if we had lost one of our friends, we would have to carry on. That was just a fact of war, after all. But just because it was a fact didn't mean it was an easy thing to do.

"Bury her," Prae spoke from beside the body, next to Remington. Everyone other than those two, Mike, and I were on the lower deck, making sure that we ourselves weren't being pursued by any other Aerships, if there were some more.

"I don't know if we have to stop. I'm sorry, but we need to get to Herobrine as soon as possible," I responded solemnly. The words felt bitter coming out of my mouth.

Prae shook her head, though. "I mean at sea. Even if it's a sea of fire," she explained, contradicting what I thought she had meant.

"In turn cremating her," Remington muttered. It seemed as though he didn't even have enough mental strength to speak at any level above barely audible.

This time I didn't give a response. What was there to say to that? The three of us lifted her and said a short blessing, and then let her drop dozens of meters to the fiery abyss below. There were tears from both Remington and Prae. I was never as close with Jessica as the two of them were, although I paid my respects inside my head. She had been part of our group for a while, and without her, Prae and I wouldn't have been able to get into Magnam Civitatem in the first place. But dropping her overboard did seem rash. There wasn't time to do anything else, though. We had to carry on and save Herobrine.

"I'm sorry," Mike said quietly, now standing near us. "She was a good person, I'm sure of it. I never knew her that well, but everyone means something to someone, right?"

"Yeah," Prae choked out. I looked down at my hands. They were still leaking a little blood. The pool of blood on the stairs from Jessica was fading away now, due to the heat and pressure of the air in the Nether.

"The real reason I came over, I'm afraid, is because the masts are all set. That cavern up there is an entrance to some lair, I'm sure of it," Mike explained, pointing up at a hole in the ceiling a couple hundred meters away. It was huge, big enough for three Aerships to pass through it at a time, probably.

"Things like that aren't normal in the Nether," Skyler commented, walking up the stairs toward us. "It can't be a hole up to the Overworld. That's impossible. The Overworld is really high above us, but traveling through the bedrock would take years, longer than a human's lifespan. And even if you were successful, the pressure would be too great with all the rock collapsing downward on you. That's why you have to take portals to get to the Aether and Nether. So it's part of the Nether, somehow, and it's definitely not normal. I'd say that it is worth investigating," he continued.

"Fine then. We don't really have any other notion to start from, so why not?" I shrugged, and Remington and Prae both nodded solemnly. I hated to say it, but they would need to get over Jessica quickly. Things were about to get really gruesome for the seven of us.

"Everyone!" I shouted down to the lower deck, although it was just Aria and Clara down there now. They looked like they had been making some polite chatter or something, but they walked up to the upper deck now for my announcement. Since everyone was assembled, I continued. "We will now be heading toward what is suspicioned to be the Endermen's Nether lair at full sail. You should be wary, because I am expecting a fight. And if Herobrine really is up there, then we'll surely get one."

The group speculated on this for a few seconds, and as Mike began to steer the flying ship up toward the hole in the ceiling, we manned the edges of the decks with bows and arrows out and ready. Almost everyone had a pair, excluding Remington and Clara, who borrowed Mike's considering that he was steering the ship from above. I was at the starboard side of the lower deck, with Aria at the front of the ship, Prae on the portside of the lower deck, Remington on the upper deck, Clara on the back of the upper deck, and Skyler on the starboard side of the upper deck. This way, there was no direction that the Endermen could catch us from surprise, unless they just floated invisibly up from below and rammed the hull of our Aership. The group all had melee weapons ready as well in case an Enderman got its way onto the deck of the ship by teleporting, and we all wore iron armor as well. But now that the Endermen knew there was a small chink in the armor in our back, we would have to be even more wary of their attacks.

As the sea of fire that bubbled below slowly faded away as our Aership ascended into the fiery skies, I kept my eyes trained for any sign of any Enderman. Really, any mobs in general. A ghast could completely screw us with one fireball, severing out Aership in two and letting us free fall into the hot magma below. A Zombie Pigman on a cliffside could also change the game for us, possibly being a scout and alerting the Endermen of our presence. Or even worse, another Aership, considering that they were all commandeered by our opposition except for the one that we were driving up. None were idle, I figured. Surely they would send out all eleven of the others to try and find us, or help the one that we had stolen back to the base. They would try and communicate with us once they found our Aership, I would understand, and all of a sudden one of the ships would be crashing down into the lava below.

The dangers of the Nether were beginning to overwhelm me. And to make matters worse, I was really confused still by that metal object we had found back in the Temple of the Overworld. It didn't really make sense. What was it used for, and what exactly had I done by pressing that one key? I wondered if the world had faded oddly like that anywhere else, or if it was just apparent in the Temple of the Overworld.

Where could Herobrine possibly be? I'd known that he had been struggling for a good amount of time now, and I was determined to make a successful attempt at rescuing him. Then again, I also didn't want to get sliced into pieces as soon as I stepped foot in the Endermen's lair. We would have to use some amount of cunning or something of the like in order to pass through successfully and undetected.

"Stay frosty!" Mike warned us from his perch, carefully steering the ship up. That was a military phrase that had been invented back in the Creeper Wars, basically warning everyone else that there was likely danger imminent. But how could you stay frosty in a land where ninety percent of the world was covered in steaming magma or just flat out on fire?

Our Aership was significantly nearing the entrance to the cave. We were so set on the fact that this was where the Endermen were hiding, but what if it wasn't? It just seemed legitimate that it would be where they would end up being, considering the circumstances and the laws of physics that required this cavern not to exist. But then again, the Endermen weren't supposed to exist in the first place, either.

The Aership had now ascended so high that the top of the crow's nest was hanging barely five meters below the netherrack ceiling. The ceiling was made entirely of netherrack on the surface, but the inside would be bedrock, I figured. And if the lair was actually built out of the ceiling, then the walls would literally be made of bedrock. I wasn't sure that that was possible, but if it was, then the Endermen would probably set explosive traps. Bedrock couldn't be destroyed by TNT, so there was probably a pretty good chance that we would be riddled by that factor. I was prepared for anything, because they could surely throw a variety of dangers at us.

We were now floating below the entrance to the cavern. It went up for a good fifty meters, and we were suspended directly below it. Now there was the question of how we were going to get up. "How are we supposed to get in? I really don't want to get off this ship, by the way," Aria commented loudly.

"I'm working on that!" Mike replied, struggling with some ropes connected to the different Aership masts. He was cutting away some of the blocks, and the ones that fell came down to me. In all, there were four blocks of Aether cloud. When Mike was done, the masts were positioned horizontally, and the Aership began to drift upward into the lair. "When the masts are horizontal like this, they are moved upward by the hot air coming from the lava. Almost like a balloon effect," Mike explained, clearly proud of his accomplishment. "And hence, up we go!"

Indeed, my eye level was soon obscured by bedrock. There were paths of it that ran up the walls of the hole in the ceiling, and I kept an arrow loaded in my bow. Since we couldn't steer our way up, Mike had taken his bow back from Clara, who now provided lookout. The Endermen would come out at us any minute now. Unless they had already gotten something else planned. Which, in our case, they had. I barely noticed the tripwire that ran from one end of the wall to the other, and by that point the mast that we had built had touched it.

The world exploded in front of me, and I went flailing to the side. Fire sprang up from all around me, and explosions made sure that my ears couldn't hear anything other than blasts of TNT. There was no way that we could've scouted it, but it surely didn't feel good to have your ship blown apart. The dust slowly cleared away, and we were sinking by then. "Jump to the walls! There are walkways there!" someone shouted, and I saw two forms leaping from our ship through the dust to a bedrock path carved out of the walls. Struggling to my feet, another explosion rocked the ground from under me, and I ran over to the side of the ship. It was sinking fast, and I put my bow away. Barehanded, I leapt from the chaotic, flaming piece of scrap that the ship had been reduced to over to a walkway in the wall.

There was a moment that it felt like I was flying until my legs crashed into the floor. My head hit the wall, and I slumped over. My legs had already been weak on the ship after the explosion, but my heavy landing made it feel like they had been broken. I could bend my joints which was good, but it still wasn't a very good feeling to have your legs smashed against the hardest material in the entire world at high speed.

It was impossible to tell if anyone other than the two people I saw had made it off the ship. My legs hurt badly, particularly my left one. It seemed I had reinjured it from the Wither attack before we had reached Mt. Wolfpack. Propping my arms at my sides, I lifted myself up to a sitting position. The wreckage of our Aership was crashing down the sides of the chasm, smashing itself into a thousand pieces. Hopefully there wasn't anyone still on it.

Since I had put away my bow, I was thankfully spared of losing anything valuable. But was that a price to pay for our only means of transportation in the Nether to be lost so easily? I didn't know, but one thing was certain; we needed to regroup somehow, and quick.

A floating strand of the string that had triggered the explosion drafted down in front of me. It swirled and tumbled in the air, finally no longer visible as it drifted to far down for me to clearly see it anymore. Struggling to my feet, I looked around at the other sides of the lair to see if I could find anyone else. The smoke was clearing, and if we could somehow get a signal to each other, we could continue to make our way up on the paths of the bedrock walls and somehow fight the Endermen at the top.

At last I could see the other parts of the hallway. Someone had placed a torch on the wall to my right, and there were three people huddled around it. It was impossible to tell who was who, though. There was a group of two people above them on the side opposite me, wandering their way down toward the torchlight. I couldn't find the last person, though.

I was about to start making my way toward the torchlight when she spoke. "Damn! We should've known those bastards would set something up like that," Clara commented, limping her way over to me. Her hair was straggled all over the place instead of its normal curly fashion. She was holding her tomahawk at her side, though, and no part of her looked severely hurt.

"No dip. I see torchlight over there. Let's hope to Notch that it is one of us," I responded, and began leading us toward them on a path that curled around the circular hole in the ceiling. I could already feel the effects of my leg on my walking pace. It was slowing me down noticeably, even if I was still making legitimate time alongside Clara. It wasn't until we were halfway there that I glanced back and noticed a significant change in her. "What happened to your dagger?" I queried, still making my way forward. "It's almost useless to use the tomahawk without it."

She sighed a little bit. "I dropped it in the explosion. Odds are in favor of it being melted down in extreme heat down in the lava right as we speak. Although I can still use my tomahawk. I just have to fight a little more defensively." She brushed a large amount of hair that had covered her left eye out of the way. "Which I don't like. And damn, those Endermen messed up my hair, too."

"We'll put that on the list for reasons to kill them all," I joked, taking hold of a slate of rock that jutted out over a two block high ledge. Gripping the edge of it, I scrambled my way up until I was lying on my stomach on the same level of the torchlight. Clara followed suit, and I helped pull her up by her arm once she was near the top.

After a little more walking, we reached the torchlight. There were Skyler, Mike, and Remington huddled up there. Skyler was lying on his back, and Mike was treating a large gash in his left arm. Remington stood guard, waiting for any others, and he recognized Clara and I right away. "Comrades! I do believe that Mr. Waters requests your assistance!" he shouted, and we kneeled over Skyler. He looked up at me, and flinched as Mike wove a piece of string through it. It looked like he was sewing the wound shut, and he was about hallway done.

"How are you doing? Can you still fight?" I questioned, and Skyler flinched again. There was no point asking how it happened; if he wasn't glowing purple, it wasn't important. Rather, I was better off just getting straight to the point.

"Hopefully the sewing will-" he started before bracing again. It looked really painful. "Help," he said, concluding the sentence. "And I should be able to swing a sword still, right?"

"Let's pray to Notch in that favor," Mike commented, gritting his teeth. The weaving was done by a string tied to a small iron point that he would insert within the two sides of the gash that would pull the skin together, eliminating any risk of infection.

"Speaking of Prae," Clara said, making a terrible pun, in my opinion, "Where are the others?"

"I saw them before. Hopefully they get here sooner rather than later so we can make our way up. I am really not enjoying the Nether this time around," I commented, hinting at my previous residence of the Fourth Realm. They all knew the story, of course, but only Prae and I had been there to experience the horrors of it all.

"And hopefully we can get on the move soon," Prae said, walking over from a ledge that snaked upwards from our position. "Once you're done licking your wounds, Aria and I found a way up to the top of the chasm. Stealth isn't an option anymore, so we're just going to have to kick down the barn doors and trigger a slaughter."

"Who made her boss?" Mike muttered under his breath, although it was clearly audible. I was pretty sure that that was a mistake, but you never knew with him.

"I did. Though you take your time with Skyler. I don't want anyone to be fighting and then having their arm just randomly open up," Aria scolded him. I shot her a glance, and we made eye contact. It was still a secret, I figured, about her liking Skyler. But that might've been a little bit of a giveaway.

The five of us that weren't preoccupied with sewing someone's arm or having it done to you strategized. Prae and Aria had found a path on their way down to our torchlight, and it led directly to the ridge that the hole opened up into, more of a large room than the chasm that we were currently climbing up. From there, we would just have to fight our way to Herobrine, if he really was up there.

Once Skyler was ready, we climbed up the small stone wall that Prae and Aria had jumped down and continued our way up. Again, my pace was a little sluggish, but not so much that it changed how fast we would reach the top. I just pretended to be a sort of lookout at the back of the group, making sure that nothing got us from behind. It worked well enough, although I promised to myself that I would get it checked out by one of the doctors that we had recruited back in Magnam Civitatem.

At last, we reached the point that the path faded into the room above us. Our group of seven stood there, mystified, and watching as Endermen pushed a cart of supplies up toward an Aership. There were three of them here, so our suspicion had been right; they had sent out more to find us, and had clearly failed.

There were many Endermen around the premises of the room. I guessed at least twenty, and they led huge legions of Zombie Pigmen. The three Aerships stood idled, tied down to large ledges with string as if it were a dock. We weren't spotted yet, but it wasn't wise to just stand in the open and watch as they performed their duties.

There was a large wooden box of supplies, and the seven of us crouched down behind it. "Do you see anything notable?" I whispered, and Remington pointed to an area on the other side of our cover for me. I snaked my head around the corner of the box and looked off into the distance.

There were a good number of Zombie Pigmen there, guarding a large glass cage. Inside was the form of Herobrine, although he was sitting over and looked a little sickened. There were small green beads of light leaving his body, going through a tube that was connected to his glass cage and to another one next to his. Inside that one was an Enderman, and the green orbs were flooding into him, making its purple eyes glow even more ominously by the second.

"It almost looks like they're harnessing his power. After all, he is a god of sorts," Clara commented.

"But how in the world are supposed to save him? We'll stand out like a diamond ore set in stone," Skyler sighed, gripping his iron sword only with his uninjured arm.

"Then maybe that's what we'll have to do," Aria breathed, as to remain undetected.

"So what's the plan? Just charge in, break the glass, grab Herobrine, and run away?" Mike asked.

"I do apologize for ridiculing you, but I do not believe that it will be that easy," Remington shrugged, unsheathing his diamond broadsword in prepare for battle.

"Like I said before, we're going to have to make this a slaughter. There's only one way to do this, and that's to kill them all," Prae acknowledged.

Making sure that Monarch was secure in my hands, I nodded. "There's only one way to do it sometimes, I guess," I shrugged. "Good luck, and most of all, try to stay alive."

And with that, we charged ahead toward the glass cages. Now that we were closer up, there were probably about thirty Zombie Pigmen just in close proximity of the cage. It was going to be quite a fight, and I was worried that one of us wouldn't make it out alive. Nevertheless, we charged ahead with weapons in front of us, Aria and Mike raining arrows on the unsuspecting undead swine. The flint cut through them with swift death, thinning their numbers as our front five collided with brute force.

One Zombie Pigman chose me to be its first opponent. That was a good mistake, clearly, as I slashed the right arm of its body with expertise. It wasn't down and out yet, though. Instead, my opposition swiped at me with its other arm, trying to knock me over so that it could eat me with its sharp fangs, or maybe even something more gruesome. There was no chance that I would go down that easily, though, as I jammed it with the side of Monarch and thrust the diamond tip of the blade into the Zombie Pigman's head. In a small explosion of blood, bone, and brains, it was rendered absolutely helpless at my feet.

Things were never as easy as killing the opponent and swiping the objective, though. As I stood idle, waiting for my next attacker to step forward out of an army, the glass of both sides shattered. Herobrine stayed where he was, lifeless, and the Enderman rose from its seat on the floor. "_At last. The powers of a god can belong to the Enderdragon. You have served us well, you foolish immortal. Even your kind will fall before the scales of my master._" The snarl was clearly directed at the lifeless form of Herobrine, who sat up from his idle state on the floor.

He mouthed something, although it was too quiet for me to hear. The Enderman certainly heard, though, and I heard it's cold voice penetrate above the squeals and shrieks of the attacking Zombie Pigmen. "_You think so? Well, you are immortal, so let's take you for a test run, shall we?_"

With that, a green glow surrounded the Enderman, and Herobrine's body was lifted into the air. It slowly drifted past the battle and over my head, and he looked down at me. I could read only one word from his lips: _help_.

There had to be away to save him. If he just let him fall into the chasm, then I could somehow catch him. But there wouldn't be enough time to, and I couldn't just free fall.

Could I?

"Guys! Stay here! I'm going to save him!" I shouted to the others. Prae shot me a worried glance, but it was too late to change my mind. I knew what to do, and I was going to execute. Taking the four pieces of Aether cloud from my toolbelt, I crafted them together. A parachute. It was so simple that I couldn't even explain. Slinging it over my back and making sure that the cord was secure, I sprinted toward the edge of the chasm. As I reached it at full speed, the green glow that had now surrounded Herobrine as well vanished, and he dropped from the sky toward the lava below.

At the last moment, I dived into the smoky air. Herobrine had his body sprawled out to catch air so that he would fall slower, whereas I had my body in a line pointed vertically. Maybe he was trying to help. Using this strategy, I would be able to catch up to him.

And soon enough, I did. As we exited the chasm and flew toward the lava below, I grasped him in my arms and tightened the cord. The parachute flew out from behind me, and our falling speed dropped dramatically. Now we were just drifting down, and there was a floating netherrack island only a little way away. Steering us to that point, I heard Herobrine speak.

"Thank you, Glowstone. Once we reach ground, I will tell you what they have done, and how we can erase it. You have done a great deed today," he spoke. As my feet landed and I cut the lines of the parachute off my back to let it fall aimlessly into the lava, I nodded.

"All in a day's work," I joked, glancing up at the hole in the ceiling. The rest of the Imperial Battalion would have to make their way down soon.

**And so there you have it! They finally rescued Herobrine due to popular demand, even though I originally was planning on having them anyways. But he won't be the same man now, at least until they reverse the effects of what has been done to him.**

** Will the rest of the Imperial Battalion survive? What happened to Herobrine? And what will the group do next? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	31. Fight or Flight

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** There has been a pretty decent sized break between chapters, and for once, that's not my fault. I had a million projects in school, and that interval is now over. Plus, my school football team's season finished, so I'll be able to write over an hour of extra time a day with nothing else to take my attention away from TPoM. These two factors will result in really fast chapter releases, and I promise I'll keep that promise this time.**

** Also, I have a question for you all: It is November, and therefore a very important season of the year for gamers like us. So I ask you what major release you are most excited for; Assassin's Creed 3, Halo 4, or Call of Duty: Black Ops II? And also, if you are on PlayStation Network, please give me your gamertag because I need people to play with that won't rage quit and crap, because that's really annoying.**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 31**

**Fight or Flight**

Dust clogged up my nose as I waited. My Barrett still had a good amount of ammunition from our travel to Stockholm, and considering that I preferred to use it as my sniper, I didn't swap it out with an Anonymous weapon at their armories in the Swedish city. What would be really bad, though, was if I sneezed or something with all the debris in the air. Surely this wasn't normal, even if Berlin was on fire in parts of the city. Sneezing while pulling the trigger wouldn't be good, so I hoped that that wouldn't happen.

Anyways, this was my most important mission yet. Technically I wasn't even supposed to be out in Germany performing the task required, but desertion meant that you could do anything you wanted. Even if Hudson and I could just go to some safehouse in an abandoned country and camp out there for the rest of our lives, I preferred trying to help the Resistance. Notch was more important to me at the moment five days ago, and surely that was a stupid decision. After all, what had Notch done for me? Given me a folder that I was forbidden to open? Now Hudson and I were all alone in a war torn world with no allies.

The least I could do was try to save the President's daughter. The President of the Resistance didn't really do much except for regulate the colonies that we had set up in Canada and what remained of the mid-western United States. Propose taxes, make sure that everyone was in line, that kind of stuff. But he also had the keys to a drone army that the Resistance had locked away because of unsafe tests. If his daughter was held ransom, he might break, and that would certainly not be good. So his daughter was needed in order to hopefully preserve humanity as we knew it. But even that had been changed dramatically.

Hudson and I were set up on a building overlooking an open plaza. There was an old fountain in the center, although it was parched dry of water. Destroyed remains of cars were on the sides of some roads, and there was a path up to the hotel on the other side of the plaza that cars could go through. What I was waiting for was a car carrying the daughter. She was due for the building, an Anonymous interrogation center, in less than five minutes now. Our plan couldn't fail. It just couldn't.

From our perch on the church building across the street, we had an overview of about five blocks of space. We would be able to see the armored convoy of cars coming about a minute before they arrived, and that would be when our plan would go into action. The hotel's rooms went up to the seventeenth floor, five stories above our vantage point, where the building stopped under a roof. The girl would be led up there.

When the convoy arrived, guards would be leading her into the building. A helicopter overwatch would be hovering over the site as air support, and once she was inside, we would fire an RPG at it. Knocking it down, the Anonymous forces would be aware of our presence, but it wouldn't matter as long as the two of us fought back. They couldn't kill the daughter because they needed to broadcast her torture to her father, as they couldn't say they killed her because the Resistance and the President wouldn't believe them. So she would stay alive unless there was an accident.

With the helicopter down, the two of us would have to pick off their outside forces with our snipers. Once that was done, there was a metal rope from a telephone line or something from before the war that connected the hotel and the church steeple. It sloped downward from us to the front doors, and using metal hooked blades we could slide down it and make our way up the building until we reached the President's daughter.

There were too many things that could go wrong, but we couldn't change our plan now. The intelligence that we had discovered was so specific that we could easily develop our plan around it as we had, and our plan was too specific to change now. We would have to deal with it and get this done.

Once we had the daughter, I didn't know what we would do. Resistance forces would surely be making their way toward our position at some point, sooner or later. I couldn't contact them, though. My radio's speaking function had broken, so I could only listen in to what they had to say to us and other friendly call-signs. Hudson had lost his in Stockholm's firefight, so we would have to go on without any support, even if they somehow decided to help us.

On our perch above the city plaza, the dust whirled around us from the fires on the outskirts of the city. Berlin had been burned bad in the bombings of Germany several years before, and the dust had clouded over the city like a blanket keeping a person warm. I was trying to keep my hydration up and my lips wet with bottled water that we had scavenged from the Anonymous armories in Stockholm, but it did little to help.

"How much longer, do you think?" Hudson asked from the other side of the building. He was on the other corner of the steeple's balcony, about ten yards to my left. He had decided to get his own sniper from the armories because he hadn't brought a sniper in the first place. I hadn't asked what model it was, considering that I had my own weapon issues to attend to.

"Can't be much longer. Make sure that you wait until she's inside the hotel before you fire the missile," I reminded him. At that moment, he picked up the RPG that was lying down behind him and made sure that the green rocket was secure.

"Yeah, yeah. I just can't wait to blow up a chopper. Must look pretty cool, especially when you're the one with the trigger that does it," he jokingly replied.

I took another swig from my water bottle and put that away in my combat pack. Inside were three other bottles of water, a couple cans of food and the like, a medical kit, and my hooked blade. I took that out right now and slipped it over my wrist. By tensing a certain muscle in your finger, the blade would pop out until you tensed it again, almost like an on and off switch. The end of the blade was curved, so I could use it to slide down the metal coil that we had found on the church steeple.

After zipping the combat pack closed again, I set myself up in a prone position with my sniper poking out. I was ready for the convoy to come, and I assumed that Hudson was too.

A little rumbling noise grew imminent from my right. "Here they come," I whispered, and sure enough, dust was rising on the road in the distance, and a transport helicopter was flying overhead. As the grew nearer, I confirmed that there were six cars in the convoy. Any one of them could be holding the President's daughter, because the plans had said that they rotated for security. So for now, I waited.

The helicopter came overhead the plaza first, making dust on the ground whip up into the air in a sort of tornado-like fashion. We were too high up for the dust to obscure our vision, but the ground looked like it was completely submerged in a dust storm. As it hovered above the plaza adjacent to our hiding spot, the convoy of military vehicles rolled into the brick road that circled around the fountain centerpiece. They parked in sequence, leaving us to wait for the President's daughter to exit one of them so that we could begin our assault on the hotel.

"Steady, now. I'll give you the go-ahead once she's inside," I reminded Hudson, who had his RPG trained on the helicopter that watched from above. I didn't even think that it might notice us. It wasn't like it was dark outside, in fact, it was only about two o' clock in the afternoon. Hoping that it wouldn't spot us felt like I was putting too much trust into luck.

My right eye was locked into the Barrett's scope so that I had a view of all the cars, each one zoomed up close enough so that I could easily make out the details. The third one from the front of the convoy parked directly in front of the hotel's revolving doors, and all the others stopped where they were around that one. The doors opened up on the car directly in front of the hotel, and an Anonymous guard walked out. He had a submachine gun in his left hand, which was pointed at the ground idly.

It looked like the guard was waiting for something, and he said something into the car. Out came a girl, shorter than him with long, straggled blond hair. She couldn't have been older than fifteen years old, although she looked terrible. They had spared no expense in harassing her already, even before she was at the Anonymous holding cells.

The guard that was already out of the car began walking toward the hotel across the sidewalk, and the girl followed him. She was clearly the President's daughter, and another guard tailed her from behind. The car doors shut, and they began to move back around the plaza. I assumed that they would be going to a parking garage so that the other guards could go inside the hotel. Unfortunately, they wouldn't get the chance.

"Clear," I shouted, and a heavy blast of Hudson's RPG being fired shattered the air. A long smoke trail followed the missile, and it flew headway into the helicopter that overlooked the plaza, making sure that the convoy got away safely. The rocket smashed into the side of the chopper, causing fire to leap off of the metal and the vehicle to blow apart in midair. The rotors flew off to the right, and were still spinning as the slashed marks into the street furiously. Most of the helicopter's remains, though, went plummeting to the plaza ground, in hot, smoking heaps.

"I just made the money shot!" Hudson exclaimed, proceeding to pick up his sniper. I already had mine retargeted up toward the roof of the hotel, where about ten mercenaries were set up with laser sight snipers. None of the red lines were coming toward the church steeple, so we were still undetected. That ended, however, as I squeezed the trigger and fired a bullet from by Barrett into one of the snipers. The man was knocked backward with the force of the shot, and a small red spray exited his body from where I had hit him.

The two of us proceeded to take out the other snipers. Once they were all dead, I began scanning the other windows of the hotel to try and find some others. One of the glass windows broke, and I felt a rush of air as a single bullet zoomed right past me. There were about five more snipers on the fourteenth floor, and these didn't have laser sights, which was how they had been able to stay hidden from Hudson and I.

I refocused on my Barrett's sight and shot at one of them. It hit my target in the right arm, literally ripping the limb off with its force. As I was shifting my focus to a different enemy, I saw one of them take out a small switch from his pocket and flick it. There was no question in what that would be doing.

"Hudson! Jump on the metal zipline!" I yelled out to him, throwing aside my .50 Cal and jumping into the air above the plaza. I tensed my muscle, and the curved blade popped out and snatched the metal wire from midair. I was speeding down when the church steeple exploded. They had loaded it with C4, and now we would have to prematurely advance into the hotel.

That was, if I got to the ground alive. Fire leapt out from the smoking building, making it feel like I was momentarily trapped inside of a furnace. Sparks bounced off of my blade as I zipped down toward the street. Risking a glance behind me, I realized that Hudson wasn't on the line. If he hadn't made it, then there was next to no debate that he hadn't survived.

It seemed that it would be a one man show from now on. My flight path darted over the smoking chassis of the downed helicopter, and I loosened the muscles in my arm. I dropped off of the metal coil as it dropped down from the church because of its end being severed off. Being only a couple feet above the ground, I hit the cobblestone road at a running pace and continued up to the revolving doors of the building.

Turning backwards, I made one last wish that Hudson might have made it out alive. The metal coil had now hit the ground at the foot of the church, and the top of the steeple was either missing because of the force of the explosion or in flames. I would have to go forward without any support.

That was when the crushing reality of it hit me. I was all alone, trying to save a high value individual that was under max security. Anonymous knew I was here, so they were the enemy. And the Resistance wanted me dead for desertion. I had no allies.

"Fine, then," I muttered, taking the Type 95 off of its sling on my back. "I'll just do it myself." And with that, I pushed the revolving door and entered the lobby of the hotel.

**TPoM**

"All friendly call signs in the area, this is a status update on Operation Athena. This is Code 376," the radio emitted, startling the pilot of the Black Hawk.

"Everybody shut the hell up! We're going to need to hear this," Sergeant Brady ordered, and the group stopped their briefing. In the Black Hawk transport helicopter was an American Seal Team Six squad, one of the many that were moving out to extract the Resistance President's daughter. The mission was classified as Operation Athena, so this message must have been an update on their objectives from their base in Manchester.

"The hotel has been confirmed to be Codename Athena's hostage point. She has been taken in, and the site is under attack by our two rogue soldiers, Sergeants Richter and Hudson. If we are to take the daughter alive, it looks like we have some competition. The two rogues are to be taken _alive_ for questioning on their intentions. Any officer found to have killed one or the other is to be arrested themselves," the radio explained, and with that last word, the static cut out.

The squad in the Black Hawk was silent. It seemed that all four of the Seal Team Six members knew the magnitude of this situation. If the two former SSFS members were able to secure Athena before any of the Resistance forces could, the consequences could be unforeseen, and very deadly. The group knew that this was a do or die mission now.

"Three minutes out!" the copilot warned them, breaking the ominous quiet.

The four of them began checking their ammunition and equipment, and flicking the safety switches of their assault rifles off. "So what's the plan now?" Private Dunes asked.

Sergeant Brady raised his eyebrows, popping a magazine into his CM901. "Everyone's hostile."

"Ain't that the truth," Private Wilson muttered.

**TPoM**

The radio message played through to me from Manchester, coming from my radio. The worst part was that I couldn't respond, telling them that I was actually working toward the exact same goal as them. Although it seemed that there would be no mercy for me.

Pausing at the entrance to the hotel, I waited until the entire message had been played out. Once the static background faded, I turned back to my Type 95. The Resistance would be here soon, so I would have to push through the Anonymous forces as fast as I possibly could.

The light of the sun shined down on me, and I squinted to look back up at the flames of the destroyed church steeple. And just to think I'd been up there less than a minute ago, I had been lucky to escape with my life. Now I would have another, more deadlier challenge. To fight my way through the hotel and rescue the President's daughter would be my hardest mission yet. Oh, yeah, and I was completely alone in the fight.

I kicked the metal bottom of the glass revolving door, causing it to begin turning. Stepping into the opening, I walked slowly as the hinges turned to reveal me to what waited in the hotel's lobby. Bracing for a fight, my hands were tight around the grips on the Type 95. A three round burst assault rifle, my shots would be much more accurate than the average fully automatic gun. So there was that advantage, as long as I reached cover quickly enough.

As soon as an opening in the door revealed itself, I kicked it so that it grew a lot larger and stepped through. The lobby was much like your average hotel lobby, with some chairs set up around some tables and an old television hooked up to the wall. There were racks with pamphlets for attractions in the Berlin from before the war had started, and a reception desk. Behind the desk were two Anonymous guards, neither of them armed, but more dangerous than your average mercenary with a weapon. They could alert the others of where I was entering the building from. Surely they wouldn't expect me to have just walked through the front door.

Focusing in through my gun's ACOG scope, I fired a burst of bullets into the guard on the right. Two of them hit his chest, and the lucky one hit him between the eyes. The other guard made a movement to duck under his desk, but that only caused the bullets I fired at him to cut through the top of his head. Blood spattered on the wall behind him, and the lifeless body slumped over onto the floor.

"Too messy," I whispered worriedly. That much blood made a death pretty obvious. Stepping through a small gate into the reception desk's backside, I made a quick survey of the damage done. They were both certainly dead, and it looked like none of the routers connecting to the other guard outposts in the building had been activated. They were on high security alert, but they didn't know I had made it in here alive. As far as Anonymous knew, I was a pile of ashes sitting idly across the street.

There were about fifty camera views from around the building on small television screens. One looked over the lobby from an angle away from the receptionist desk, and viewed the door as well. No alerts had been activated, so by blind luck the other guard outposts had not seen me in their security cameras. There was no view that exposed the desk, so they wouldn't know of the guard's deaths except for by unconventional methods.

Now I had to make my way up toward the upper floors. There had to be some way that I could intercept the President's daughter's party of guards that were protecting her. That was what I would have to figure out. After all, I had a mass array of security cameras at my service to try and find a way that I could get through as incognito as possible. Watching them, I noticed a security checkpoint on the fourteenth floor. It was directly outside of the stairwell and elevator room, and led into long hallways that extended in either direction to the different rooms on the floor. There were about five guards at the checkpoint, three of them armed, two of them looking over a security set very similar. There was no panicking from the group, so I had definitely passed through undetected so far.

What caught my attention, though, was a party walking into the view of the camera. There were two armed guards, most likely the ones that had exited the car that I had seen from the top of the church steeple. They both flanked the President's daughter, who was in the same bad state that she had been outside. They paused at the checkpoint, and the three armed guards that were operating it checked them over. One of them was talking to the girl's face, and slapped her right in the face in anger. The young girl stood tall, though, not backing up or anything. The guard who had hit her stepped back, admitting them to go past the two desks that closed in the elevator and stairwell entrance. Taking note of his face, I put him at number one on my kill list.

Breaking my gaze from the many cameras on the panel, I reloaded my Type 95 with a fresh magazine. I had to find the stairwell, and from there I could make my assault on the fourteenth floor. Walking out of the receptionist desk and making sure that I didn't step into the security camera's field of vision, I continued down a hallway.

There were signs to the hotel restaurant and pool and stuff like that, but I paid no attention. Watching for a sign for the stairs, a small sign caught my eye. It read something in German, and then 'Stairs' under that. An arrow pointed to the left of an intersection. I couldn't remember there being a security camera that overlooked this next room, so I continued forward.

The door to the stairway was set into the wall. Like most hotels, the stairs were actually part of their own, bland room off of the main halls and attractions. Opening it and stepping through it in a swift motion, I made sure that there was no security checkpoint here. Thankfully, there wasn't, so I was home free to continue on upstairs.

The steps were made of metal, although it was solid and didn't make much of a sound as I ran up it. Through the fifth floor, I still had not found any security cameras on the stairs. My challenge awaited for me on the fourteenth floor, and it seemed that there would be no surprises on the stairs. I wasn't complaining, but it almost seemed like this was too easy for just one person without any help from another military force.

Realizing that made me remember that I could totally be screwed if the Resistance got to the girl first. I would be hostile, and even though I was classified as an HVI myself, there was no doubt in my mind that the officers that reached me first wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet in my leg or foot. That wouldn't kill me, after all, but it would still hurt a pretty good amount.

Tenth floor… eleventh floor… twelfth floor… I was moving through them quickly. Thirteenth… just one more set of stairs to go…

And finally I reached the door to the fourteenth floor. There was a small peephole in it, and I stared through it. I had always found the effect that peepholes gave amusing, making everything look like you were viewing it through a fishbowl. On the other side were the five guards that I had seen downstairs before when I was looking through the security cameras. None of the three guards that were armed with weapons were facing me, so this was the opportunity.

Kicking down the door, I fired at one of the men that had been facing sideways, and therefore having a better chance of adjusting his aim to me more quickly. He went down in one burst of bullets, and I snapped to a target that was turning to face me as I fired. He was down too, and I shot one last time at the other armed guard.

I caught my breath for a second, considering that the other two guards weren't armed and could be killed with me taking my time. Adjusting my aim again, I fired at the last two. They both went down with the sheer power of an assault rifle's bullets at close range. That was not something that you wanted to mess around with.

With the imminent threat neutralized, I paused once more to reload my magazine. Once that was done I vaulted over the security tables and continued to the right, the direction that the armed guards had taken the President's daughter. There was a door at the end of the hallway that was just closing, although the hallway was quite long. Sprinting, I hurried to make sure that I could reach her. That had to be the room that Anonymous was holding her captive.

The walls of the hallway passed by me in a blur as I ran toward the shut door. Reaching, I took a step backward and slammed my shoulder into it. The hinges broke and the wooden door fell inward, and I focused in on the scope of my Type 95 once more.

There was one on my right, and he went down immediately. Three others that remained standing, one of them, using the girl as a human shield, began firing at me. Rolling on the floor behind an overturned desk, I escaped the onslaught unscathed. Ducking back above the desk, I fired another burst of bullets into one of the other guards. My aim adjusted immediately to the last guard that wasn't holding the girl, and I fired into my victim's skull.

The last guard was the one using the President's daughter as a human shield, and he fired his submachine gun at me. Crouching back down under the desk, I pulled out my Desert Eagle pistol and stood up. The guard was reloading, and I fired a single shot. The bullet sliced through the air and pounded into his face, causing him to be blown backwards, let go of the girl, and eventually fall over lifeless.

Shoulders heaving, I reloaded a fresh magazine into my Type 95. Just in case reinforcements came at that moment. For now, though, I walked over to attend to the disheveled girl. There was a long strand of scotch tape covering her mouth, and I pressed my hand to it. She nodded subtly, and I ripped off the silver strand of tape.

"Damn, that hurt," she exclaimed aloud, stepping backwards and pressing her hand to her mouth in distress. Stroking it, probably trying to get it so that it wasn't numb anymore, she realized that I was still standing there or something and got up. "Thanks a lot for that," she thanked me, wrapping her long arms around my body and pressing her head against my chest. She was short, probably only reaching up to my shoulders.

It was a little awkward for me. I had never really been, well, involved with anyone. Once she stepped backward, I checked the magazine of my Type 95 again. Locking it into the assault rifle, I knew that there would still be more challenges to come. "We're not done just yet. Anonymous will have more than just eleven people in the building, and that's all that are neutralized. Plus, the Resistance might come at any second," I explained out loud.

Scrunching up her face, she asked, "I thought you were with the Resistance."

I looked down awkwardly. "I was," I mumbled.

Frantic now, the girl asked, "What is that supposed to mean?!"

I never got to answer, though, as the entire ceiling blew apart on the right side of the room. The two of us were blown backwards by the strength of the explosion, and as the dust settled, four men came out of the smoke and debris with assault rifles all pointed at me. CM901s. They were American weapons.

"Sergeant Richter, we advise that you drop the weapon and release the girl immediately. You are under arrest for treason and desertion against the Resistance," the one in the front said. What point was there to argue when there were five red dot sights trained on your forehead?

**TPoM**

The Black Hawk touched down on the roof of the hotel. Sergeant Brady was the first to get out of the sliding doors, immediately followed by Private Dunes. Private Wilson wasn't far behind, and the Seal Team Six squad's communications operator, PFC Stone, lagged behind. "Alright, we sweep and clear until we find the floor with the President's daughter!" Brady ordered, flicking the safety of his CM901 off. "All clear?"

"Yes sir!" the rest of the squad responded, and they began making their way to a hatch on the roof that led to the hallway of the seventeenth floor. As Dunes opened it, revealing an empty stairwell, Wilson nudged Brady. "Sir, what the hell happened over there?"

The soldier was pointing across the street, and the group walked to the edge of the roof to spectate on what he was staring at. There was a church across the street, and the top steeple was blown apart. What remained was in smoking flames, and on the street was the crashed chassis of a downed helicopter. "It was that SSFS squad. They're here," Brady confirmed, crushing the spirits of the rest of the group even though it was no surprise.

"Let's get moving, come on!" Brady shouted, and they began to turn back to the stairwell when they heard voices. Pausing at the top of the stairs, the group listened down to the voices coming from a few floors down. "Come on, you bitch," an aggressive male voice said, and a door slammed.

The Seal Team Six squad hurriedly made their way down to the place where the door had slammed, which was the fourteenth floor. Brady looked through the peephole and saw the scene of the guards bringing the President's daughter through the security checkpoint that Dylan Richter was observing through the security cameras at that exact moment. The guards took her to the right side of the hallway, and the Resistance special force squad hurried to the fifteenth floor. "We'll blow our way through the floor to get there, and catch them by surprise," Stone suggested, and they kicked down the door to the security checkpoint on the fifteenth floor.

Five Anonymous guards were fortunately no match for four heavily trained Resistance officers, and they went down quickly. As they prepared to make sure that their explosives were ready to use in the room above where the girl was being held captive, PFC Stone looked over the security camera database. "Oh, shit. Guys, one of the rogues is on floor fourteen already," he announced, watching Sergeant Richter make easy work of the security checkpoint on the floor below them.

"Hurry up, then! We cannot lose the girl!" Wilson shouted, and the group thundered down the hallway toward the door at the end of the hallway. They could now hear gunshots directly below them, and after breaching the door and wiring the explosives, Dunes flicked the switch to set off the explosion.

As the floor crumbled and Brady spoke to Sergeant Richter about the laws that he had broken, the girl backed away to a desk chair in the background. Private Dunes walked over to her. "It's okay," he assured her, setting down his assault rifle to show his alliance. "We're here to help you get out of here alive."

**Captured once more is Sergeant Richter, and how will he get out of this situation innocent? It seems that he can't please anyone, no matter what side he is fighting for.**

** What will become of Sergeant Richter? Will saving the President's daughter aid the Resistance in the campaign? And will Alex rescue Herobrine alive? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	32. Blood Brothers

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** And in other news, I've been surprised to realize that the United States election has actually made headlines in other parts of the world. Because of my reputation as "12-year-old diplomat" (see my profile), I figured that foreign countries wouldn't give a crap about our election. But yeah, Obama won. Won't say how I feel about that because I don't want to get into political mayhem, and I advise that you don't either.**

** More importantly for a kid like me, the new Call of Duty is officially out! I haven't actually picked it up from the store yet, even though I pre-ordered it, although my mom said that I could after school on Friday. Because my mom is awesome like that. :) But yeah, last chance if you're on PSN to alert me because I'm having a huge multiplayer and zombies marathon Saturday night. So give me your username because all of my school friends have XBOXs. PLEASE!**

**EDIT: OK, so uploading this chapter somehow glitched up TPoM. In that case, I had to delete the story from the site for about seventeen hours. To all my fans who were concerned into writing PMs to me, thank you. I'm not going to respond because there is no point in that, but I hope you can forgive me. But as of this, all the stats have been reset. I did have 372 reviews and 20,900+ hits on the story, but both of those have been reset to zero. Thanks for your support, and I hope you all can still enjoy TPoM! :EDIT  
**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 32**

**Blood Brothers**

Flying down from the top of the large tower back in Magnam Civitatem hadn't been that scary. The parachutes had been acting perfectly normal because of being in the Overworld, and the city below would have no purpose in trying to shoot us out of the sky. Plus, all Prae and I had had to do was land on ground anywhere the wind took us.

In the Nether, it was a very different story. With Herobrine in my arms, weakened by his loss of energy, our weight increased and we floated down faster. There was a small island made of netherrack that I was aiming for, but there was no guarantee that we would land on it safely. And the Endermen could teleport down from their lair above at any moment.

The heat of the lava below beckoned at me, almost wanting to devour me alive and turn me into molten flesh and bone sinking down into the depths of whatever lied below. Trying to steer the cords of the parachute toward the island, I began to get nervous that we might miss. Something had been done to Herobrine by the Endermen that made me sure that he wouldn't be able to just teleport us back up to the island. Even if he could, after all, wouldn't he have done so already?

The shape of the island was growing larger and larger until me feet hit the uneven ground. Cutting off the cords of the parachute right away so that it didn't carry me off, I tried to steady my footing unsuccessfully. The two of us fell onto the hard rocky material, and I watched out of the corner of my eye as the remains of the parachute plummeted down in a disorganized heap into the fiery sea below.

"Ugh…" I muttered, shocked from what I had done and now suffering the consequences of running out of adrenaline. Herobrine lay next to me, his menacing eyes with no pupils staring at me in curiosity. After checking to make sure that my belt was still intact and that all of my supplies were in it, I stood up. The Guardian of the Nether did not follow suit.

"Herobrine, sir, um," I tried to explain to him that we had business to attend to, and since the rest of the Imperial Battalion could make their own way down here at any second, I needed him to be alert right now. "Can you get up so you can tell me what happened to you?"

He blinked, something I thought he never did, and got to his feet. "Of course, Glowstone. You must be wary of me, I'm not quite in the shape that I wish I was in," he replied solemnly, steadying himself against a ridge of netherrack that jutted up to make the level of the island rise steadily. "How much time do we have, because I can give you the full story or get right to the point from the get-go," he asked.

I scrunched up my face to think on how to respond to that. "I don't know, just explain the whole story as fast as you can!" I answered hurriedly.

"OK, I'm sorry," Herobrine scolded, pausing because of a harsh cough. "Now you obviously know by now that the Endermen are taking over the Nether as a place to set up home base because of the fast travel idea, correct?"

"Fast travel?" I queried, confused a little bit by his wording.

"Gah, don't they teach you children anything these days?" he sputtered, shaking his head in obvious dismay. "The theory is that every block in the Nether is equal to eight blocks in the Overworld, allowing for travel eight times as fast when advancing through the Nether. The Endermen obviously want to use this so that they can cover as much ground across the Overworld as soon as possible, so they just want to walk into my Realm and take it all away!

"Well, according to them, I am a problem. Of course I am, considering that they're the only mob that I didn't create. So they see me as a threat to their invasion, while I see them as a threat to the peace of my world! See the dilemma?" he explained. Truthfully, I saw it, but I didn't see his view of 'peace' as the Nether before the Endermen invasion. It wasn't that much different, except that they were a disturbance to what was natural and what wasn't.

"So they need a way to dispose of me," he continued, stopping again to cough. I turned briefly to check on the entrance to the Endermen's lair. Still no sign of my friends making progress on their escape. "But why waste the power that I have instilled into my body? Why, I'm like an apple, for my brother's sake! Why crush the apple because it takes up space when you could harvest it's juice as well? Bad metaphor, however truthful it may be.

"And of course they can alter the world through something my brother calls 'code'. I don't know what it is, honestly, but I damned don't like it. They storm me with all of the Zombie Pigmen that have turned to their cause through mind control – another alteration in code, mind you – and capture me. The bastards built that glass device that saw back up there," he told me, pointing up at the entrance to the ceiling lair, "And shut me inside of it. One of their leaders got in the other side, and it literally sucked all of the power out of me."

This was too much for me to understand. "What do you mean, power?" I asked.

The god shook his head in distress. "I mean power! What do you think I mean? All of my abilities as a god, to fly, to create whatever I wanted, to destroy whatever I wanted, and to establish links; all of it gone to those shadow beasts. I am man like you once more, and I really don't like the transition back," he rambled, infuriated at the events of the past hours.

"Exactly how do we reverse the effects of that?" I queried.

"That is the hard part. There is this matter in all of us called experience. A god's is way higher than all other beings, with mobs being the lowest. The Endermen's are actually only a couple of points, as the measurement is called, off of the normal human like you. Those green orbs that you saw coming out of me were my experience being transferred into that other Enderman, so now it is only a few points away from being a god," he explained, coughing again. He really was in bad shape. "We need to kill it, and I need to recollect it's experience through a procedure that only Oracles know. A human's experience is actually spent to enchant materials like your axe, but only by Oracles who have the mental capacity to be able to without going insane. It still drives them a little bonkers, though."

"So that's why Khalida is so weird," I confirmed, and he nodded. "And why Adam calls her Loopy. Because she is the closest thing to Loopy."

"Yes, yes. But we need to stop the Enderman that has my powers as soon as we can. If it is given the time and opportunity, then I have no doubt in my mind that it will somehow transfer that power into their species' leader, the Enderdragon. There was a time when it was very strong, almost at the level of the gods itself, except it was fueled by evil. It is building its way back up, though, and I fear that if its power is restored out of my experience, then it will make it much harder for you to defeat," Herobrine warned me, now concerned about our safety.

"So is that it? That is what the answer to my prophecy is, isn't it? To defeat what you and Notch call the Enderdragon?" I interrogated. "Well, if you know so much about it, then why don't you tell me how I'm supposed to defeat it right now?"

"Alex, you know that it is impossible for me to do that. For now, we must stop that Enderman with my experience. If my theory is correct, then the power it has could be the bane to us all. Now, where is the rest of your group?" he contradicted.

I laughed nervously. "Yeah, about that. We have to wait for them to get back down. Probably with one of the Aerships up there," I explained, pointing up at the hole in the ceiling.

Herobrine looked at me, a little bewildered. "Are you trying to tell me we're stuck here uncertainly until your friends get back down with an Aership, which there is no guarantee that they will do?" he asked hurriedly.

I nodded, and he pounded his fist angrily against the ridge and cursed under his breath. "Well, as long as the Endermen don't leave their lair, then it isn't that big of a deal if we can't get to them," he said, more assuring himself than me. "For now, we have to go to the Temple of the Nether again, though."

I raised my eyebrows. "And why is that?"

Herobrine pursed his lips nervously. "Notch would like to see you there. There is something that he needs to tell you, and it is very important." It wasn't that big of a deal, but Herobrine was saying it like he had just been ordered to kill me. As far as I knew, he hadn't, but why was he acting strange? So we would have to go to the Aether, then. I wondered exactly how amazing it would be to be in that dimension in real life, and not in a dream for once.

We waited there, and I got out two cooked porkchops. Handing him one of them and taking a bite out of mine, I began to feel my strength surge back, my tiredness draining away. When I was about halfway through eating my piece of meat, I looked over at Herobrine. He was just holding it absent-mindedly in his hands, without having taken a single bite.

"Um, that's for you to eat, you know," I told him, and he looked up from it.

"Oh, um, yes!" he exclaimed, in a tone as if he were agreeing with me. Blinking a few times, he shook his head in dismay. "Um, do you just bite and swallow it, or…?"

I had forgotten that since he was a god, he didn't actually need to it. But hadn't he eaten before? I guess I had overlooked that fact, but who knew that I actually had to teach him? "Yeah, you just tear off a piece with your teeth, and chew it, and then swallow it," I told him, biting from my porkchop again to demonstrate as best as I could.

Herobrine looked back at his piece of meat, and lifted it to his mouth. Biting into the side of the food and tearing off a piece of pork, he began to chew and then swallowed. Looking back at me and then back down at his porkchop, he repeated the process. "Mmmm…" he hummed, staring at me. "I forgot that food tasted so good. I should start eating at events other than Notch's banquets. They only happen twice a year or so, but I guess that I should try this more often." He finished the rest of the porkchop, and then looked back up at the hole in the ceiling.

"Look! There is an Aership!" he exclaimed pointing up at the sky. Descending out of the lair in the ceiling was an Aership indeed, floating down. Hopefully it would be controlled by the Imperial Battalion so that we could get some headway in our fight against the Endermen.

The two of us waited for it to descend more until it was on level with our island. By the time that it was at the same height as us, another Aership was dropping down out of the Endermen's lair. One of these two were being controlled by the Imperial Battalion, although there was no way for us to tell which until we could board the one in front of us.

Herobrine and I stepped up to the edge of the island, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Mike captaining the wheel. Prae and Remington were nearest to the both of us, and lifted out a small netherbrick walkway that was set down on both sides of the chasm between the Aership and the floating island. We hurried across onto the Aership, and Remington and Prae in turn moved the small walkway back to an idle position on the deck.

"Welcome aboard, comrades!" Remington greeted us, shaking my hand in a friendly gesture. "Please keep all arms, legs, hands, and feet inside the vehicle at all times. This is of the upmost importance!"

Unable to keep myself from grinning stupidly at Remington's humor, I took my bow back out and looked up at the Aership that was in our pursuit. "What's the plan?" I asked.

Prae stood back up from setting down the walkway on the deck. "We fought our way to the Aership after you jumped down after Herobrine, and we were just able to get it off the ground and on its way down before the Endermen tried to block the chasm back down with a different Aership. The other one was still idle, but that one is in hot pursuit," she explained to me, pointing up at the other flying structure pursuing us.

"And the Endermen that stole my powers?" Herobrine queried.

"He's on that ship. I'm assuming that we can't let it get away?" Aria replied, walking over from her post at the front of the dock.

Nodding solemnly, I confirmed her notion. "Yeah, but I guess that they're coming after for the same reason as usual. To get rid of me."

"That's enough chit chat!" Skyler ordered, marching over with an arrow notched into his bow already. "Everyone assume position around the dock. We assume that they'll be attempting to knock our ship out of the sky, so we have to sink them first before they do it to us."

Even if Skyler wasn't exactly our leader, he did have a point. We were in a dog eat dog situation, so the only way for us to survive was to make sure that the opposing Endermen didn't. Of course, like everything these days, that would be much harder than it sounded. I took my spot at the back of the top deck, making sure that if the Endermen were able to start making ground on us somehow, Mike knew that. He was pretty near me considering that he was the one making the ship's course, so I alerted him of where we needed to go.

"Mike, we need to get back to the Temple of the Nether. Can you manage that?" I questioned him, and he made an aggressive turn around a jugged island that was in our way that he had just barely been able to notice in time to work around it.

"I absolutely can, Alex Glowstone. Setting sail now," he confirmed.

That was when the first cannon shot was fired. The Endermen's Aership was now at around our level in the air, and a flurry of white shapes came flying over through the hot Nether sky and slammed into the side of our ship. The force of so many projectiles caused the Aership to jerk to its side, making me slip over and fall on my side. In my surprise, I accidentally fired one of arrows haphazardly, and it fell useless against the floor of the deck. Dislodging it from the lock it was stuck in on the netherbrick surface and reloading it into my bow, I stood back up to see the Endermen's Aership a lot closer than it had been before. There must have been about five Endermen on it, and they were all on the deck. But that would mean either more of them were on it or there were Zombie Pigmen because someone had to be firing the cannons.

"Everyone alright?" I heard Clara yell above the loud ambience of the Nether.

A shower of yeses provided her with a good enough answer. "What the hell did they shoot at us?" Aria asked.

"Snowballs. Useful if you're trying to shoot out a blaze or ghast from an Aership, and in turn, they can be used to cool down other Aerships' engines so that they don't work anymore. And they make quite the impact since they are super compressed, as demonstrated just now," Herobrine explained, and I raised my eyebrows. Could snowballs really do that much damage?

"If they have cannons, then odds are we do!" I shouted, and everyone else awaited my orders. "Skyler, Aria, Remington, and Prae, get down there and unleash hell on them!"

The four people that I named hurried into the cabin that led to the cannons, assuming that they were in the same spot on Aerships as they had been on normal boats in the Overworld. Prae hurried to the upper deck briefly and walked up to me. "Try not to kill yourself," she told me. Grinning, I replied, "You as well." After a short kiss, she hurried back under to the cannon room. I swapped my bow and arrow for Monarch, considering that we didn't need range weapons in order to fight off the Endermen on the deck.

The opposing Aership was very close to us now, and after a third volley of snowballs hit us, we finally fired a round ourselves. The Endermen obviously had not been expecting it, with the snowballs smashing into the sides of their hull and tearing through the Aercloud sails. As I watched them grow nearer, I remembered something really important.

"Keep pushing, Mike. We have to get out to the Temple of the Nether as soon as we can," I urged him, and then slid down the railing next to the stairs to try to make up for whatever time I had lost. Herobrine glanced at me warily, but didn't pause to stop and ask what I was doing. That seemed very unlike him… I hoped that he would somehow get over becoming mortal again.

Through the doors to the living room and around the sides of the stairs and I was in the cannon room. As I walked in the group was prepping another rally of snowballs. "Guys, don't fire until you hear this!" I yelled, halting the process that they were going through smoothly.

"Well, let's hear it!" Skyler said back smartly. Why was he aggravated with me…?

"Aim the snowballs at the Endermen themselves. Snowballs are made of water, and that is the Endermen's weakness, right? So it should be that snow will hurt them even more than impact or water would separately because the effect is combined to make some sort of monster effect!" I advised them, and they adjusted their aim accordingly quickly.

The group fired four more snowballs, and they all made solid impact. Remington's whacked an Enderman who had been standing too close to the deck right in the chest, and the snowball plowed it backward until it crashed into a heap a couple blocks backward.

The moment of success was brief, however. The Endermen didn't waste any time recuperating, and answered our rally with their own volley of snowballs. They were using an actual strategy this time, though, and all the snowballs smashed into our Aership at exactly the same point. The wall that the projectiles had crushed blew into pieces in my face, and cold, frozen water washed over me. There were pieces of netherbrick that were flying through the air, and that was when I realized that gravity was taking over.

Gaining my senses, I saw that there was a huge hole in the wall now. The heat of the Nether was dominating my senses once more, making way for the cold of the snow to evaporate into thin air. The Endermen's Aership was much higher than ours now, and we were headed toward the sea of fire at a slanted angle.

Pushing off a piece of netherbrick that had pinned me down to the floor, I stood up in a haze. Monarch was still in my grip, and I saw a glint of iron. It was Murder, laying a few feet from Prae's outstretched hand. She was still down on the ground, struggling to regain her footing. Aria, Remington, and Skyler were all steadying themselves against pieces of rubble. I took Prae's arm and pulled her up to her feet. She glanced into my eye, bewildered. "Oh my Notch, what the hell just happened?" she exclaimed.

"I think we're all asking the same question," I replied, beginning to walk down to the doors into the living room. "Let's get topside and see where we are going."

"Well, the way things are shaping up to be, we're headed straight for a sea of lava," Skyler mumbled sadly.

I led the group of five around corners until we climbed up the stairs onto the lower deck. Clara was patrolling around with her diamond tomahawk in hand, clearly unraveled by our sudden impact. We were going at a slanted angle downwards, and there was indeed lava below us. But more importantly, only a little farther up was the remains of the Temple of the Nether.

"Alex! I am setting course for the Temple at twelve o' clock, but I fear that we don't have enough momentum to make it all the way," Mike warned me. I could see the Temple clearly now, and it wasn't too far away. It would be a close call either way, if we missed or made it to land. "Just keep pushing," I responded back, letting the wind ripple my hair backwards as I stared out at the building.

Our pursuer's Aership had vanished, flying high up into the sky in retreat from us. The Endermen that had been on board probably would be making their way to whatever leader they took orders from to give it the experience that had been stolen from Herobrine. I braced for our impact with a wall of netherrack right next to our objective.

The front of the Aership smashed into the wall, making the entire thing shudder and creak. Smoke was already rising from the back, where the engine had frosted up and was now unusable. But the entire front of the ship was crushing in on itself like tinfoil. The force of the impact knocked me over, and the entire ship began to carve out a hole for itself in the netherrack wall. Smoke and fire rose around me in a fury, and when the dust settled, the ship had stopped in a crease, the backside beginning to tip into the lava.

"Everyone get onto the dock of the Temple of the Nether!" Herobrine shouted to the rest of us. "It's only a short jump from the starboard side of our Aership!"

The Aership itself was beginning to slump backward. If we all didn't get off of it soon enough, then we would fall down into the depths of the lava below with the smoking remains of it. I ran along the stairs, which were pretty much even ground now, and jumped off of the Aership in a hurry. The others followed suit, and we were all safely on the Temple of the Nether's deck with time to spare. As I secured my footing, the wreck of our Aership slid out of its landing spot and sunk into the sea of fire.

"I think that might have been our closest one yet," Aria commented, taking her bow and arrow out in preparation to move forward.

"It seems that we shall die another day," Remington responded, following suit by unsheathing his diamond broadsword. "Where are we off to now?"

"The Aether. We have to go see Notch," I told him, and checked my toolbelt. I had six blaze rods and twelve Ender Pearls, just like the god had told me I needed. "There is an Aether portal in the Temple of the Nether, right?" I asked Herobrine.

"Yes, there is. That is, if it remains intact after the Endermen's attack on the Temple. I believe that it would be, as they would plan to use it to invade the Aether once they had my Realm secure. I fear that that will be very soon, since I am not here to guard it anymore. We must warn my brother as soon as we can," he confirmed, and we entered the building.

The Temple of the Nether looked virtually the same as it had about an hour before, so the Endermen had not fled into it once more. They would be back for the portal to the Aether soon enough, so we had to hurry. I led the way with Monarch in a firm grip, Herobrine walking directly behind me holding a torch to light our way through the abandoned hallways. There were many crevasses in the floor still, and we had to pick our way around the cracks in the ground that led to a fiery death. I remembered the crevasse exploding like a volcano when we had first entered the Temple of the Nether in pursuit of Herobrine, and I took it even more slowly.

The walls weren't in good shape either, falling apart from wear and tear because of the battle that had happened not long ago. Trying to recall the path that led us back to the large room with the portals to the other two Temples, I walked among the hallways in a kind of haze, not sure if I was going the right way but not wanting to show any signs of weakness.

At last, after a good number of minutes of darting around corners and walking down increasingly long paths, we reached the entrance to the Temple of the Nether from the front, and it was in this room that the portals were. There was a Nether portal that would send you back to the Temple of the Overworld, and directly next to that was an Aether portal. I had seen them before in books and when we were learning about the different dimensions back in school in Imperial Plains, but I had obviously never seen one in real life. The blue substance in the middle of the glowstone frame tumbled around like water, and I stared at it, mesmerized.

"So do we just step through here?" Skyler queried, and Herobrine nodded. "I guess that I'll go first, then." And with that, Skyler stepped into the frame and disappeared, transported instantly up through bedrock and into the Overworld, and then even higher until he reached the Aether. It couldn't have taken more than a split second, but it was quite a long way.

"I just thought of something. They're expecting the Endermen to be attacking, so we better send someone up that the Angels will recognize," I thought aloud, now feeling sorry for Skyler. The Valkyries could be inspecting him right now, since he wasn't familiar at all. We would have to either send Herobrine or me up now, because they would know Herobrine and they would supposedly also be expecting me at this point.

Stepping forward to the wall of blue matter, I exhaled nervously. "See you guys on the other side," I said, bidding them a safe trip in a way. And with that, I stepped through the frame of the portal and was transported to the Third Realm.

**TPoM**

My immediate reaction when I stepped out of the blue portal was how cold it was compared to the Nether. The temperature must have dropped to about sixty degrees, and a shiver crept up my spine. The sun must still be in its exact same position at high noon, making me wonder exactly how that worked. Did the spirit that somehow kept it up move the entire Aether system around the Overworld on pace with the sun? That would make sense, but who could be strong enough to do that? It wasn't Notch doing that, after all.

The building Skyler and I were in was majestic. There was a chandelier above us, and we were in a room that appeared to be a lobby. A stairwell climbed up from the center of the room up to the second floor, where catwalks made of shining stone led to different doors to different rooms. I would've been fascinated by the sight had there not been numerous Valkyries circling us from all directions. The winged creatures all looked like perfect human beings, and that was when I remembered that most of them were deceased humans who had joined Notch's elite army to protect the normal angels of the Aether. And when they protected, we were a threat. That was the disconcerting part, and I sheathed Monarch to show my allegiance.

"What is your business here?" one of them asked, a male with large wings and holding a long sword with a shiny red blade. His face was somehow familiar, and I remembered reading about him in history books. It was the legendary-

"Tom! Its Alex Glowstone, don't get in his way," another Valkyrie alerted him. It was Lewis the Spaceman, and he smiled at me in greeting. I remembered how he had been my guard when I had previously seen Notch before the Imperial Battalion had been formed. I had been right after all; the Valkyrie that had stepped forward had been Tom Syndicate, one of the heroes of the Creeper Wars. He blinked once in surprise, and stepped backward. "My apologies. But weren't you supposed to be arriving with Herobrine?"

"Indeed he was," the Guardian of the Nether answered, stepping out of the portal that led back to the Nether. He was shortly followed by Prae, who stepped to my side. The others made their way until the entire Imperial Battalion was standing there with Herobrine, none of us armed to try and persuade the Valkyries that we weren't hostile.

"Let them through, let them through," a familiar voice spoke, walking down the stairs in a black robe. Notch placed his signature brown bowler hat back on his head. "Welcome to the Aether to the Imperial Battalion, the heroes of which all our population depends on."

"Ironic, considering that we were once thought to be the heroes of the same title," another Valkyrie mumbled, and Notch immediately shot a glance at the general direction of the voice.

"And a hearty welcome to my brother, as well. We will give him hospitality now in the grave times that have hit us, rendering him without a home," Notch continued, beckoning to Herobrine to step up to him. The man nodded at me, and I caught a glimpse of the pure white eyes. We had been taught to shy away from them as children, but they were amazing somehow.

"Carry on with business as usual, everyone. May Mr. Glowstone come up here to me right now, please? The rest of his party may wait here, but please, bring them some refreshments," Notch ordered everyone, and I felt my legs begin forward. I didn't actually try to move them, it was almost like they were doing the action by themselves. Soon enough they had taken me to the base of the stairs, and I proceeded up to the two brothers.

"I assume that you have the things that you need?" Notch asked, and I nodded. The Ender Pearls and blaze rods were all secure in my toolbelt, and I was ready to use them at Notch's command. He turned away and led the way up the stairs, and Herobrine and I followed him at his feet. The lobby of the Temple of the Aether faded away, and we went through a door.

There was a long hallway here, and the stone floors were glistening majestically. Holystone, I believed that they were called. Anyways, Notch dropped back so that the two gods flanked me, and I walked forward as if in a trance. This seemed so odd, to actually be in the Aether with the Valkyries and Notch and not be dreaming.

After a long tread, the three of us reached the tall wooden doors at the end of the hallway. Notch pushed them open, and it revealed the room that I had been in when he had explained that I needed to save Herobrine. That was about two weeks ago, and I was already here. That reminded me, wouldn't Will and Anna be up here somewhere? I hoped so, I could use the comfort in knowing that they were here with my own eyes.

"Sit, please," Notch requested to Herobrine and I, although it seemed more like an order. How could he be so casual about all of this? It was almost like he was at ease in dealing with things that could decide the fate of the world. Maybe that was what I needed; a sense of relaxation while I killed off armies of Endermen. The idea was almost laughable.

He closed off the door and flipped a small latch that locked it from the inside. Probably an extra precaution because of the Raid of the Endermen that he wouldn't have had in normal times. Then again, I wouldn't be here in normal times. I would be policing the streets of Imperial Plains with a diamond sword in hand, respected by the community, having my place in life and not having the entire world depend on me. That position was something that I would trade for right away with no question, I was sure of it.

Notch sat down opposite me so that the two brothers were next to each other. "Tea?" Notch asked idly, and I shook my head no. Notch shrugged, and he conjured two glasses of the hot drink and moved them down into his and Herobrine's hands. Herobrine frowned distastefully. "If only I could still do that," he sighed.

"Which brings us to our first important topic of the evening," Notch cut him off, putting his cup down on a small stand next to his chair. "Our enemies of stolen your powers, and that leaves their leader to become the most powerful entity in the entire world after me. Obviously this is a problem that we cannot solve, but Alex, you can defeat the Enderdragon even when it is as strong as a god. To get to its Realm, you must utilize the materials that I instructed you to collect. May I see them, please?"

I worked some contraptions on my belt and took out the Ender Pearls and blaze rods. The items fell onto the floor, rolling around at our feet. Taking a quick count of the pieces, I confirmed inside my head that all eighteen items were there. Notch appeared to have done the same thing, and he sat up from his hunched position from which he had been inspecting the pile of materials and conjured a workbench to appear in between us. He picked up one blaze rod and placed it there.

"The first crafting recipe that you must know is simple. Though not taught to the public, it is one of the simplest ones there is. You take a blaze rod and smash it, and it gives you two clumps of blaze powder. Not too hard, see?" he explained to me, smashing the glowing orange item into two small piles of glowing substance.

"Now the other is a little bit more complicated. You take one pile of powder," he continued, pushing one of the piles of powder to the edge of the crafting table and picking up one of the Ender Pearls, "And sprinkle the particles all over one of your Ender Pearls. Like so." With that, he proceeded to put his words into action and spread the orange pieces all over the teal sphere. They reacted with it, tingling on the inside, and then got sucked into it. I stared at the items, mesmerized by the happening, and the pearl began to change in color. It was forming more of a green as opposed to its original green, and a small black dot appeared in the center. Once the surface stopped to seemingly ripple with color, he picked up the newly formed item.

"Behold, Alex. My greatest, and most dangerous, creation. The Eye of Ender."

**And so forth, the End has been revealed. With the passageway now known to Alex, it won't be much longer before the final is staged.**

** What else is there for Notch to tell? What will become of Sergeant Dylan Richter? And when, where, and how will the final battle take shape? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	33. Just A Game

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in America, and to express my thanks, I would like to tell you all that I appreciate that you've been following the story for so long. Like I've mentioned before, this is the first story that I've ever written that has actually gotten quite so close to the climax, and I have no doubt in my mind that it will be the first one that I actually finish. So thank you all.**

** That's really it for now, so let the story commence!**

**Chapter 33**

**Just A Game**

The object had an odd luster to it, making it seem as though it were a metal just mined up out of the ground. That obviously wasn't true, but looking at it gave me the sense that it was something of similar origin. Notch had called it an Eye of Ender, and it certainly looked like an eye. The small black dot that I assumed was its pupil stayed motionless in the center of the object, surrounded by speckling green matter that was dotted with small flakes of orange.

Notch set the item back down on the top of the crafting table. It didn't roll, which surprised me because of its spherical shape, but instead sat there as if waiting for a command to move in some other direction. "Try to make the other eleven, and make sure that you spread the blaze powder over the Ender Pearls evenly," Notch suggested to me. I picked up another teal pearl from the floor and placed it on the top of the workbench where it remained idle. There was another clump of blaze powder from the first blaze rod sitting near it, and I picked that up too and spread it over the new Ender Pearl.

Coating the teal sphere in the glowing orange powder wasn't as hard as Notch had made it out to be, and soon enough the object began its transformation. The orange specks settled in and became part of the Eye of Ender, and very quickly it became the very same item that Notch had showed me how to create seconds before. It really hadn't been hard at all. Even though it was called an Eye of Ender, it didn't feel anything like the slimy and squishy spider eyes that were much more common. Instead, it felt rock solid like the Ender Pearl that it had been formed out of, maybe even more so. Plus, there was some weird force inside of it that made it kind of radiate warmness. It was quite a peculiar object, I thought.

I proceeded to construct ten more, repeating the process over and over again until I had twelve Eyes of Ender at my service. My hands were cramped from working with the small pieces, and I rubbed them together to try and create friction so that they would feel a little bit better. Once that was done, I gathered the assortment of objects and placed them all in a single stack in my toolbelt. "What exactly do they do?" I queried.

Notch chuckled a bit. "Some questions are best left unanswered. When the time is right, you'll know," he replied, giving me absolutely no hint on what was so important about the pieces. "But for now, we must discuss other matters. You need to know what you're up against." I raised my eyebrows, because this was indicating we would talk about the Enderdragon. I was still curious about exactly what it was.

"Isn't that Enderdragon thing going to get really strong because it has acquired Herobrine's powers?" I asked, and Notch nodded in confirmation.

Notch frowned as he continued his speech. "Unfortunately so. Herobrine's power is very evil, I guess that is how you would say it in words. But my brother uses it for the common good; creating the Nether and mobs supplied your species with food and resources. The Endermen are, without coincidence, the only mob that Herobrine didn't create. And look how they turned out, right?" he said jokingly.

"Well, then who did create them?" I questioned. He wasn't being helpful at all.

Notch's grin from his previous joke faded. "Me. A long time ago, and I had absolutely no idea the monster that they would become. At this point, I believe that they are my worst creation by far. The Raid of the Endermen might have completely shattered our world, and they aren't done yet."

I furrowed my brow at this odd statement. "How did you create them? And they only started to appear a couple of months ago, so how would it have been possible for you to have created them years before that time?"

Notch looked at the floor and then glanced at Herobrine. The Guardian of the Nether nodded subtly. "It's time," he stated quietly.

"It's time for what? What are not telling me?" I sputtered in surprise.

"Nothing, as of a couple minutes. This is so important Alex, you can't just go telling other people randomly. But you must know because you are the Chosen One. You are the one who has the ability and the assets that are needed to slay the Enderdragon. Do you understand?" Notch explained to me, finishing off with a glare to my face.

I nodded slightly, a little bit unnerved by his sudden hostility. "It's impossible for anyone to have just willed everything to appear. They would have to actually build it, but only after imagining it and somehow making it possible to exist," he began, but I interrupted him.

"But isn't that exactly what you two can do?" I queried.

Herobrine shook his head in dismay. "Aren't you beginning to realize our vulnerability yet? I'm about as strong as you physically at this point, and there was nothing I could have done to prevent the attack that caused that to happen."

"The two of us are able to oversee everything and create whatever we want because I built algorithms in this world. In reality, it is truly impossible for a being to be immortal. Only a true God will enable that to be possible beyond our mortal deaths, but He is nonexistent in Minecraftia. When you die and are resurrected either in the Aether or the Nether, you are not immortal, but rather a rebirth of yourself. As soon as one of were to step back into reality, we would begin aging again. Age and life are just simulations here," Notch continued.

"What are you trying to say, though?" I sputtered in disbelief. "That this world isn't reality, that it is just a dream of sorts?"

"A simulation. An experiment that I created two hundred years ago that was so successful that I harnessed the power of an unidentifiable energy to make it into a real land. That world is Minecraftia, the world in which you have lived your whole life," he finished.

This information sunk into me. It was all too great for me to understand. And then, out of nowhere, I got it. And I hated Notch for it. "So this world, all of us people, we're just an experiment to you?! Some idea that you were putting to use, to try and help some other reality?"

"Well, yes, but it has been the success of a perfect world, a world where no one dies. You have no idea the technological breakthroughs and things that it has done to help Earth, the other reality. The true reality," he countered, but it was no use.

"I happen to believe that this world _is _my reality, and by no means is it perfect. All this time you've been sitting up in your Aether watching us struggle against the forces of nature, barely getting along for centuries. And then when we can't fight anymore, when we're drowning in sorrow and hatred and need your help, you break it that this entire world isn't even real?! You aren't a god to us, you're a monster, a tyrant who seeks to control us.

"I don't care anymore if you creating the Endermen gives you knowledge on how to kill them, I don't care anymore at all. We found our own ways, and we don't need your help. These are our lives that we're fighting for, and to you, it's all just an experiment, just a game!"

With that, I stood from my seat, making sure that I had all the Eyes of Ender, and began walking toward the door. "I'll still fight the Endermen, but not for you. For our reality," I said, only turning back to say that for a few brief seconds. Kicking open the large wooden door and stepping through, I began sprinting back to the stairs. We had to move out as fast as possible. Since Notch was no help to us anymore, we would have to get back to Novum Eboracum as fast as we could. I didn't care about the Aether. What had looked beautiful had now gone sour.

Hurrying down the stairs, I brought Monarch out of my toolbelt. We would be going back through the Temple of the Overworld, so there was no hurt in being prepared for a fight. The Endermen might have sent reinforcements to try and stop our escape. There was no way that I would let that happen if it were up to me, and as far as I was concerned, it was.

I reached the bottom of the spiral staircase, and rallied up the others. The Valkyries didn't interfere with us as I brought our numbers into a huddle. "What did they tell you?" Clara asked, being the first one to speak up.

"That our life is a lie and we're in deep shit. Let's go, we've got work to do," I said shortly, and we began going through the Aether portal that led back to the Overworld. The others had all made their way through the portal except for Prae and I. She leaned up to my ear. "What happened, you seem pissed," she queried. I knew she was looking out for me, but I wasn't in the mood to talk about our failures right now.

"I'll tell you later. Let's go back to the Overworld, shall we?" I asked her, and the two of us stepped into the swirling blue portal together and were teleported downwards.

**TPoM**

The cooler air of the Aether gave way to a more damp, musky feeling. Stepping out of the Aether portal with Prae's hand still around me, I observed our new surroundings. The room we were in was made of stone brick, much of it covered in moss. The green strands of the plant rolled down the sides of the walls and made the air's humidity skyrocket.

The five others in the Imperial Battalion were circled around Prae and I. "What exactly was that about?" Skyler queried, his eyebrows raised in question. The situation was pretty suspicious of me after all. But right now, I didn't want to go over why I was mad and instead try and resolve the issue. Of course, for this situation, there was no way to reverse the effects. What Notch had told me had sunk in, and there was no possible way for me to reverse that.

I couldn't decide on whether I would tell the others of Notch's exhibition. To do so would be truthful, but doing so might make them question their loyalty and become skeptical of the real threat of the Endermen. In my eyes, Notch may have lied to his whole race of people, but we could still work to fight against the Endermen.

"Nothing important. We just don't have enough time to stay in the Aether right now," I answered dully. The group cast a couple looks in my direction but no one openly objected my opinion. "First things first, though. This is the Temple of the Overworld again, right?"

"I believe so, sire. Although there is no way for me to tell for sure," Remington responded solemnly. Monarch was still in my right hand, my left in Prae's grasp.

"Then let's make our way back to the S.S. Wolfpack. The sooner we get back to Novum Eboracum, the better," I explained, and after pulling out a torch, I began walking down a corridor away from the Aether portal. The others followed me into the dark, the flickering light of the torch our only guide into the presumably unknown.

"How far out do you think we are from the lobby of the Temple?" Aria asked from near the back.

"It can't be too far. The Nether portal wasn't that long of a walk, was it?" Mike answered, figuring that based on the corridor to the other portal this one would be virtually the same length as the corridor from before. You couldn't be sure, though.

Our group got out of the corridor and entered the lobby from an entrance from the far right. On the walls were equations and diagrams and such, and now I knew what they were about somehow. This other world called Earth, where supposedly things weren't perfect enough so scientific geniuses had to come up with perfect worlds. Well, if this was supposed to be a perfect world, then Notch had failed bitterly in his attempt.

"Well, here we are. Should we go out from here?" Aria suggested, and I nodded. I kept my torch on as we stepped through the doors into a chilly night air. The Temple of the Overworld sparkled in the dim moonlight, and we continued forward away from it on the dirt path that crossed over the island. The others all got torches out so that we had a very good source of light as we walked forward along the grassy fields.

There were some rogue hostile mobs that had spawned near us. It was nothing to worry about, just a couple of zombies and skeletons that didn't even take notice of us because we were too far away from them to notice our footsteps. The dirt path eventually ceased, and I continued in the front of our group along a trail of grass that had been trampled by us earlier that day.

The plain started to slope downwards slightly, indicating our descent toward the beaches that our ship was docked on. Soon enough, we could see the silhouette of the masts in the distance, illuminated by the moonlight reflecting off of the ocean waters.

Suddenly, catching us all by surprise, a group of spiders came rushing toward us over the crest of a hill. They had the higher ground and were zooming down fast at us, so we had barely any time to react. There were just four, and they didn't have the mark of the Endermen on their bodies. Still, the first one latched onto Clara's leg, sinking its teeth into a small bit of exposed flesh. It was unsuccessful in trying to disable her, though, as she jammed her diamond tomahawk into the hostile mob's back. The spider slumped onto the ground helplessly.

Readying my diamond sword, I swung at a spider that had been trying to flank us on the right side. It jumped backward and Monarch missed, but it got the message that I wasn't just going to back down from a fight. It inched forward once more and this time I got a hit right on top of the spider's abdomen. The blow literally knocked it to the ground, dead.

The others were clearing away the other two spiders, and once they all died, Prae got down on her knees. She touched the heads of the deceased mobs and clasped her hands together, praying to Notch for forgiveness in killing innocent creatures. They had attacked us, so we had had no choice, and it gave me goosebumps that she was praying to Notch. All of this was just a game to him, and it unnerved me deeply that none of the others knew the truth. I decided against telling them, though, just because it was for the greater good that they left it alone.

After regrouping, we continued our walk along the path toward the towering shadow of the S.S. Wolfpack. We reached fairly soon, the wooden hull bearing a cruel reminder to me of the Aerships that we had sailed upon throughout the Nether. The one on which Jessica had died on, and the one that had rescued Herobrine and I from the deserted island in the air.

Mike was the first to reach the side of the ship. There was still the rope that tied it down against the sandy beach so that it wouldn't float away along the oceanic waters to places that we would never be able to reach and bring it back from. Mike lowered down the wooden walkway that allowed us to board the ship, and we started up. He waited down on the ground with me, and he turned to ask me a question. "So what's wrong, Glowstone?"

I sighed, placing Monarch back in my toolbelt so that I was empty handed and somehow more friendly. Or maybe just less hostile. "I'll tell everyone on board. Just make sure that you get us back to port as soon as you can," I assured him, and turned to walk up the wooden planks myself. Mike shrugged and began to untie the rope from the single piece of fence that we had placed on the ground on the island.

The boat gave a sudden lurch as it was detached from the island, and I climbed aboard the lower deck. Mike shortly followed me, and he hurried up toward the wooden wheel that commanded the rudders. Remington and Skyler pulled the wooden walkway back up onto the lower deck, setting to the side near the notches that it fit into so that we could get off the ship.

The moon was literally directly above us in the sky, indicating that it was midnight and we would be sailing in the dark for a while. The rope that had connected us to the shore had been coiled into a little bundle and was now lying on the side of the deck. The sandy shore of the island where the Temple of the Overworld rested began to float away, or rather, our ship began to slowly sail away. The wind wasn't very strong, but it was blowing east. Luckily for us, that would mean that the trip would be a bit shorter than it normally would be.

The sky was eerily cloudless. I didn't like it that way. It almost made me feel like something was missing at the moment; that the sky was too empty for us to be living under it. What good did it do to sulk over things like the sky not having clouds, though? Wasn't it enough to carry on dragging a thick ball of sorrow behind you because everything that you thought was real was just some experiment separate from reality?

"Alex!" Mike called from the wheel up on the upper deck. "I need your assistance if we are to get home sooner!"

Glad to have something productive to do, I hurried up the wooden stairway up next to the captain of the boat. He was steering the wooden wheel around the small pieces of driftwood that had been left at sea. "You called for me?" I responded, now standing next to him.

"Yes, yes. We aren't gaining enough speed. Try to lower the masts so that we can pick up more of the wind," he commanded, pointing up at the main mast and then the front mast.

I raised an eyebrow skeptically. "And how exactly am I supposed to do that?" I queried.

"It isn't that hard, really. Just untie the ropes that are holding the Aether cloud masts up so that they drop down over the ship. This way, the wind will push them more and we can gain more speed more efficiently," he explained, and I looked back up at masts. The ropes did indeed tie up the masts so that they were suspended above the rest of the ship. Problem was, the knots themselves were high up on the wooden bars that rested thirty feet above the lower deck.

"OK…" I said, and began walking down the steps toward the wooden base of the front mast. It was secured into the deck of the ship by iron nails that circled the entire block of wood that was directly on top of the deck of the ship. The Aether cloud sheets that I had to unsecure rested high above me, unmoving from the wooden mast. The only way up was up the wooden pole. Nervously, I gripped it with my hands.

There was a small crack in the wood a couple inches above my head, and I fit the tips of my fingers into it. The fit perfectly, and I found another crease exactly like it a couple more feet up. I reached up toward it with my right hand, and fitting it in, I lifted myself off of the ground. My legs were literally pressed against the side of the wood, with no way for me to actually crawl back down. I glanced at Aria, who had an arrow fit into her bow as she scanned the seas for any sign of an enemy. Taking a deep breath, I began making my way up.

Every little notch in the wood was another possibility for a handhold or a foothold. Soon enough was way above the wooden deck of the ship, and I glanced down. That was a huge mistake, and I could feel my body shaking in fear. The fall would certainly injure me greatly, and a fall from my final destination could possibly be fatal. Focusing on the wooden pole once again, I continued to make my way up toward the top of the masts.

At last, my hand gripped a horizontal wooden bar. I gripped onto it and lifted myself up. It was almost like doing a pull up, one of the useless exercises that we had had to do in gym classes back in Imperial Plains as preparation for combat training. At least, we had thought that they would be useless, but clearly it actually helped me later in life.

Once I was safely on the wooden bar, I sat on the side with my legs dangling over the ground that rested so far below. The fall would certainly be fatal from this height, so I began searching for the tie that held the Aether cloud masts up on the tall wooden pole. There was a knot of rope a couple feet away, and I slowly stretched out my arms to try and reach for it from where I was sitting. It was, unfortunately, just too far away. That left only one option.

Getting my center of balance back, I slowly stood up from my seated position on the wooden bar. My balance must have been really good for me not to have fallen at this point. Keeping my arms out at a length to my sides, I slowly walked toward the rope tie that rested annoyingly five steps away.

Step after step, I could feel my ears pounding, drowning out any other sound that I could have possibly registered. The wood stayed steady under my feet, and I reached for the rope knot that was keeping the mast high up in the air. A small strand of the rope was budging out of the knot, and I pulled it open so that the strands fell helpless apart. In that exact instant, the Aether cloud mast unraveled itself and fell apart, hanging over the ship. With the front mast out, I could already feel the ship picking up a little bit of speed. However, I knew that the main mast would implicate so much more power than the smaller one I had just opened.

I cautiously stepped back to the wooden bar's endpoint, where it joined the main post high above the ship's hull. The wind was starting to pick up a little bit since we were going at a greater speed than before, and I steadied myself against the wooden pole that stood vertically.

It would probably take too long for me to climb back down to the lower deck and then repeat the entire process once more on the main mast. Besides, the wooden bars of the main mast weren't that far away from me anyways. So I braced myself, and without thinking through my plan, I jumped from my perch above the ship.

The wind whipped around me, fueling my exhilaration, and I grew closer to the wooden bar that stretched horizontally every second. At last, my hands hit it, and I gripped it tightly with all of my might. Suspended once more above the ship wasn't where I wanted to be, but there was nothing I could do about it all of a sudden. A gust of wind threatened to send me hurtling to my death, but I maintained my hold on the wooden bar.

Pulling myself up onto the wooden bar in much of the same fashion that I had on the front mast, I stood on my feet again. It was easier to keep my balance on the main mast because the poles were wider, and in turn I had more room for my feet to walk. The rope rested a few steps in front of me, and once more I crouched down and pulled the knot apart. The main mast unraveled itself and draped over the ship.

Standing back up, I watched in awe as the wind built up our speed by pushing along the masts, the seawater spraying into the air. Since there were no clouds, I could see stars for miles, and they all seemed to be beckoning down at us. Now that my objective was complete, I face an even greater problem: getting back down to the decks below.

For starters, I treaded my way back to the main mast's pole that stuck up vertically. From here, I could literally look straight down to scope our Mike commandeering the ship from his wooden wheel perched on the upper deck. It appeared that the only way for me to get down was actually climb down the wooden pole like I had in the opposite direction on the front mast.

I found some footholds, and slowly began to make my way down. This was a lot harder because you had to look down to find what you were looking for instead of up. About halfway down I almost slipped, but steadied myself using a small crack in the wood that my left hand fit perfectly into. It was soon enough that I reached the deck of the ship unharmed.

Mike looked at me oddly. "What?" I questioned, at unease by his skepticism.

"There is a ladder that goes straight up to the crow's nest, you know," he explained to me, and I looked back at the front mast. There was indeed a wooden ladder that was hooked to the railing on the upper deck that overlooked the lower one and went all the way up to the small perch just higher than where I had just been.

The fact made me smile subtly. "Sometimes it's better to do it the hard way."  
Mike snorted at this statement. I turned to look at him in question. "Let's hope that the fact you just pointed out isn't the norm," he joked.

I took a breath of the fresh sea air. "Yeah, let's."

**And so completes the Imperial Battalion's adventure to the Fourth and Third Realms, respectively. The visits have opened up new questions, some of which may never be truly be explained. But mystery is intriguing…**

** How will Alex guide the Imperial Battalion to victory without Notch's help? What else will Alex find out about Earth? And what will the Eyes of Ender lead the Imperial Battalion to? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	34. The Eye of Ender

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** The group has reached their climax as they near Novum Eboracum once more, and the S.S. Wolfpack is making steady time along the sea. What trials will harass Alex and the others, though, as they fight for survival?**

** I also want to address PMs. I don't really return them that much, and I'm sorry for that. I'm just never actually on the website for anything other than posting new chapters for TPoM or reading ones by other writers. I'm going to delete the Ender Chest soon because I can't really manage it, and I'm frequently getting PMs about it and I don't have the time to guide everyone through the process of joining the community because of school. Also, don't send my PMs like 'can I write the prequel for TPoM' and stuff like that. Just because **_**I **_**don't want to write doesn't mean that **_**you**_** can. TPoM is still my property, so why would I let someone else use the idea for their own endeavors? I don't want to sound selfish, but it isn't right.**

** And now, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 34**

**The Eye of Ender**

Luckily, no one had decided to go to sleep yet, so I called a meeting on the top deck. The six of us surrounded Mike, who was steering the S.S. Wolfpack back toward the mainland. The wind was rippling east, which was good for us as the masts caught on to that force and zipped ahead. That was the first matter of our small meeting.

"So considering the wind channel, how long will it take for us to get back to Novum Eboracum?" I questioned Mike as we stood against the railing overlooking the lower deck.

"We've already been sailing for about an hour and a half, and with the wind it would take off about that much from the time to arrival," Mike explained, doing the math in his head flawlessly without taking his eye off of the sea ahead of him. "I'd say just about six hours. We'll reach the mainland by sunrise, I think."

"OK then, so that gives us plenty of time," Skyler commented, still bitter about Mike and his past rivalry and me, for some reason. "But what happened in the Aether? There's something that Alex is hiding from us, and I certainly want to know about it."

This seemed a little hostile toward me, I thought. "It's better that you guys don't know. What Notch told me is something that shouldn't be known to everyone," I countered, cringing at the painful thought of Notch's betrayal once more. "It's dangerous."

There were some eyebrows raised, but I could live with that. Their loyalty right now was more important than the fact that our entire life is a lie. I would tell them the truth after we defeated the Enderdragon, but for now, it would have to remain private information if I wanted them to maintain trust at any level.

"More importantly, it is time that we discuss our next objective in order to end the Raid of the Endermen. I'm pretty sure that we're nearing the climax of our struggle, and it has something to do with these," I continued, pulling out one of the Eyes of Ender from my toolbelt. It shimmered in the moonlight, the flecks of orange swirling around the spherical object. I passed it to Prae, who studied it mystifyingly. She continued to pass it around the group so that everyone would have the opportunity to take a glance at the item.

"What exactly is it? I'm guessing it is a combination of the blaze rods and the Ender Pearls that we had to collect," Aria queried, holding it above her head in order to try and get some more light into it so that she could see better.

"That's our problem. Notch didn't explain to me what it was for, but he said that I'd know how to use it when the time comes. I've got twelve of them, but I have no idea what they're supposed to do," I shrugged, taking the Eye of Ender back from Remington as he passed it around. "But they're certainly important."

"Notch probably would have told you what they did if you hadn't left so abruptly. Now we're screwed because he doesn't trust us with any more information, and that's exactly what we need from him right now," Skyler scowled, staring me down.

He was certainly being hostile to me this time. "You know what I think?" I spat back at him, stepping into the center of our circle so that I was up against him. "I think that you don't trust us in the first place. If you're going to keep being a jerk, then I suggest that you leave the Imperial Battalion, because that's not the kind of people that we want."

Skyler kept his eyes locked on mine, not daring to break the gaze. His red eyes were widened with fury, but I assumed that mine looked the same. After a few seconds, he broke away and walked down the stairs toward the lower deck. He continued into the common room so that he was nowhere near any of us. I looked back up at the rest of the group. "Any other objections?" I interrogated. I was answered with silence.

"Alright then. Once we get back to Novum Eboracum, we'll hold a town meeting and elect more members of the Imperial Battalion. For now, I'm going to go and sleep. Mike, keep us afloat, will you?" I concluded, and he nodded.

"Aye, I shall fall to sleep as well. Adventure makes a hero surprisingly tired," Remington commented, and I began to make my way down the stairs. The rest followed, excluding Mike, who remained captaining the ship back toward the mainland.

Back in me and Prae's dorm, I fell on top of one of the beds with my shoes still on. The slow rocking of the ship made me uneasy, as if we were constantly being hit by projectiles that caused the ship to sway back and forth. Prae entered after me, sitting on the bed opposite of me. I kicked off my shoes, which ended up falling helplessly onto the floor.

"So what happened with you and Notch? You're not going to hide that from me, too, right?" she asked me from my left, and I sighed.

"I don't really know how I can put this…" I began, and shook my head in frustration. "But you have to believe me. Do you promise?"

Prae's smile wavered off. "Yeah, sure. But what is it?"

I took a deep breath, preparing to continue with the story. "What Notch told me has a lot to do with some things that we've found. Do you remember that black box that we found in the Temple of the Overworld?" I started. She nodded solemnly, cuing me to carry on.

"Yeah, I think that has something to do with all of this. But what he told me was that all of Minecraftia; the Overworld, the Aether, the Nether; it's all some kind of virtual reality from a different Realm called Earth that Notch is from. And that Minecraftia is just a game that he incepted, but somehow he found a way to trap people inside of it. And somehow, he's the one who created the Endermen in the first place, and figured at some point we'd come along. That must have happened a long time ago, but here we are!" I ranted, shaking my head in dismay.

Prae made no reaction, instead sitting there, staring at me as the information sunk in. After a while, she spoke again. "So you were right. Our life is a lie…"

"And we're in deep shit," I concluded for her, quoting myself from when we were first leaving the Aether. "That's why I'm in such a bad mood."

I thought I saw the hint of a smile on her face. "You don't have to be. There's a reason for everything, after all, so we must have been picked by him to save Earth somehow. Maybe Minecraftia was just some kind of barrier from the Endermen so that he would have time to ready up the people from wherever he is from," she brainstormed.

"But there's you're problem!" I exclaimed, frustrated a little bit that she was trying to make it seem like Notch was trying to do a good thing. "Why would he just leave us to populate his world if all it was is a defense mechanism? Why wouldn't he tell us about his problems in the first place so that we could just help him out right away? It doesn't make sense, Prae, to just leave us here to fight all these creepers and skeletons and fight for our survival every day. Hell, if on Earth there are machines powerful enough to create this entire world, I wish I was living there! It's not fair for us that he never even hinted at it for us."

Where there had been the hint of a smile on Prae's face had turned into a frown. "I guess you're right that we should have known that this world wasn't real after all. I just can't imagine anything different, you know?" she shrugged.

I thought about that, lying on my bed as she sat on the one opposite me. "Maybe you're right. But how long have we been trapped in here? All of it is just a game…"

Prae stood from her bed and walked over to me. "Well, if it weren't for the supposed game, then we never would have met in the first place," she sighed, pecking me on the lips and walking back over to her bed. The thought stood in the silence of the room, thudding inside my head like a hammer trying to break my skull open. She was right, but did I want to admit it?

I certainly didn't but I at least had to inside my head. "Love you," I said aloud, on the edge of sleep for what seemed like the first time in ages.

As my eyes fluttered shut, I heard the faint whisper of a response. "Love you too."

**TPoM**

I woke to the faint sound of a horn. It was in the distance of the ship, and I figured it was nothing hostile. If it were hostile, then an opposing ship would have fired by now. Nevertheless, I parted the blankets from around my body and stood on the wooden plank floor that my bed rested upon. Prae was still asleep, her chest slowly rising and falling peacefully. I watched her for a few seconds, then shook away my trance as the distant horn sounded again.

After I slipped my leather shoes back on, I hurried up the stairs to the upper deck of the S.S. Wolfpack. The sky was still dark, but the horizon behind our ship was beginning to tint orange. A bright, bright orange that shined across the water, creating misshapen reflections and long shadows that blocked the light of it in the first place. There was a small breeze of wind, just enough to make the hair on your forehead lift off of your skin every few seconds passively.

The chilly air gave me goosebumps, and I looked around the lower deck. There was no one else there. "Hello?" I called, but there was no answer. Figuring there was no one there, I climbed the stairs to the upper deck.

Mysteriously, Mike wasn't there. The wheel was turning itself through the seas, and that was a dead giveaway that something was wrong. "Hello?" I yelled again, but I got no response. The horn sounded again, and this time I determined it was coming from behind the ship. I looked over the edge out into what I presumed would be an endless stretch of sea.

How very wrong I was.

The orange light that I had assumed was the sun rising above the sea was actually a long tongue of flames stretching out from about thirty meters away. The flames were hot, and I felt the heat across my face. But what scared me was the large black mass that was flying after the ship, keeping an awfully high pace. It had long wings, and the long trail of embers was shooting out of the beast's mouth, which was lined with sharp, pointing teeth. It was the Enderdragon.

I reached down for my toolbelt to pull out Monarch, but it was of course not there. I didn't think of what this meant, though, and the long trail of fire finally caught up to the wooden boat. The wooden planks burst into flames, sparks shooting everywhere. The Enderdragon flew faster, and made a pass over the masts. Just like that, the entire ship was on fire, and I was darting along small paths of wood that happened to not be spontaneously combusting at the moment, dodging falling pieces of burning wood. The Enderdragon swooped overhead, flying along the side of the ship so that its wings blew gusts of wind toward the fire, making the embers even stronger. One particular chunk of fiery wood came close to smashing me into the floor.

Words of my failures plagued my mind. Apart from sticking to the path I had sought out across the ship to try and stay alive, they were all I could think of. _Dishonesty. Hopelessness. Death. Failure. Pain. _ It became clear to me that somehow the Enderdragon was plugging these thoughts inside of my mind somehow, making me think of the words that would make me fail.

Finally, I reached a small clearing in the fire where I stopped to catch my breath. Unfortunately, the air was nowhere near being clear, and I had trouble sucking in oxygen. Holding my shirt up to my mouth, I slowly recollected myself as the large beast floated alongside the flaming ship parallel to me. I waved my fist at it, its purple eyes gleaming in the darkness beyond the bright, flaming S.S. Wolfpack. "You can't stop us now! We have the Eyes of Ender, and maybe we don't know what to do with them right now, but you bet your life that we will when the Imperial Battalion gets to wherever you are!" I shouted.

_Distrust. Fear. Rage. Regret. Helplessness. _ The Enderdragon seemed to take no mind of my comments, considering them a useless waste of breath. It swooped down and smashed into the center of the boat, splitting it into two. The cold water splashed up, dousing most of the flames, and what had been an unbearable heat was now an uncomfortable cold. Luckily, I was still standing on a chunk of ship that had stayed afloat for a few seconds, but my weight was pressing it down into the icy waters below.

I began to feel fear itself wash over my body, but I fought it off. I needed to stay strong, even if this was just some freak supernatural meeting between the two of us. Still, the ice cold water didn't look like somewhere I wanted to be stuck in, but that was where I was headed, and fast. For now, it didn't look like I had anything to do about it.

The Enderdragon circled around the sinking remains of our ship, causing a heavy wind that whirled around me. I kept my footing, but it was clear that my slab of wooden planks was about to go under. "You'll see when we reach you! It isn't too far away now, is it?"

The Enderdragon made no response in words this time, instead diving into the water in front of me. The moment of tranquility caught me unprepared, and it shot out of the water from directly below me with lightning speed. My small chunk of wood flew upward with me still on it, the large mass of the Enderdragon propelling it up. It blew fire from its mouth, and the embers engulfed me, but I was still alive…

"Alex!" Prae shouted, waking me with surprise. My eyes shot open, and my vision slowly began to clear itself. I was back in my bed under the decks of the ship, and I presumed that we were safer than I had been in my dream. The realization that it might not have been a dream, but actually a link washed over me. If the Enderdragon could get into my head that easily, then I was either surprisingly vulnerable or it was unbearably strong. Either scenario scared me just as much as the other.

My vision unclouded, and I saw Prae standing to my left, trying to wake me. "Alex! We're almost there," she said again, and I raised a hand to my forehead. I had broken a cold sweat in my dream. The fire and the cold water had not boded well for me.

"I'm awake, it's OK," I assured her, shaking off the blankets much like I had in my subconscious earlier. My toolbelt was back now, so I was definitely awake in reality and not another dream. Well, that wasn't entirely true either, but it was as close to reality as I could get if Minecraftia was just an experiment. "Just a bad dream."

Prae raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Was it Notch? If he's trying to tell you something more, you have to listen to him. I know you're mad, but maybe he'll give us something to do with how to use the Eyes of Ender," she ridiculed me.

"Well, I couldn't really listen because you woke me up there," I sputtered, making her be quiet as I prepared to continue. "But it wasn't Notch, anyways. It was something much, much worse. That damned Enderdragon can get in my head now."

Prae frowned in concern, obviously wondering about what that could mean. "You won't have to sleep for a bit, at least, so it won't be a concern. We're almost at Novum Eboracum, though, so come on upstairs so that the town can welcome us back." She was set to go already, and she stood from my bed and started for the door. I stood from the bed and followed her out of our dorm and toward the decks above.

"How many people do you think have settled there by now?" Prae asked absentmindedly. The question seemed laughable, but considering that when we left there had been fifty people already there, I wouldn't be surprised if that number had doubled.

"More than there were before, I'd say," I answered amusedly as we walked out the door onto the lower deck. The moon was setting behind us, just like in my dream, but after a quick scan of the sky, I determined that it was actually moonlight and not a long plume of fire that the Enderdragon was spitting out at us.

Prae laughed at that, and the two of us walked to the front of the deck that faced directly east. There was indeed the coastline in the distance, and a large tower with a glowstone beacon directly in front of us. It was the Novum Eboracum lighthouse, guiding us into the port where we would rearm ourselves for the final battle. The wool outsides stood tall, and the base of the lighthouse had been reinforced with cobblestone.

"It never seems like we're able to just stay in one place anymore," I commented, staring out at the long coastline. It seemed that we would finally be able to rest back in Novum Eboracum for a little bit, even if it wasn't for long. Unfortunately, there was the fact stuck in the back of my mind that it wouldn't be very long after all. We would have time to reinforce the Imperial Battalion for the final battle, but there would be no luxury time. The fact nagged at my head, because I knew it was true no matter how hard I tried to tell myself not.

The sun was beginning to rise up behind the silhouettes of small buildings that crowded the coastline now. "The city must really be growing. Can you imagine what it will be once the Raid of the Endermen is over and people are in safer conditions?" mused Prae.

"Don't get ahead of yourself. For all we know, we might fail our objective," I ridiculed her, but after I received a dirty look, I added, "But we won't let that happen with all our power."

"Aye! The easiest way to lose is to lose faith in thyself before your trials have begun," confirmed Remington, who was walking over in his normal suit of armor with his diamond sword strapped to his back. He stood against the wooden railing next to me, taking in the sea breeze that flew over us. The wind made the strands of brown hair that stuck out from under his golden helmet bounce around his forehead messily.

I reset my gaze back out at the waves that rushed toward the shore in the same direction as our ship. It would feel very good to be walking back on mainland again. The constant time that we had spent on this dreaded ship was beginning to get to my head. All of the work to get the blaze rods and Ender Pearls was finally over, and the final challenge was about to begin.

"So what are we going to do first once we get back to the city?" Prae asked.

The question made me think. There were many things on the agenda to do before we set off on our endeavor to defeat the Endermen. We would have to find a replacement for Jessica in the Imperial Battalion, and maybe Skyler too if he continued to act uncooperatively. I still wasn't sure what his problem with us was. There was no reason for him to be being so bitter about absolutely nothing, and yet that was exactly what he was doing. We also would want to add more people into the Imperial Battalion if we wanted to have a more sufficient chance of beating the Enderdragon. The more people that we had, the better.

Still more, there was the lack of an actual government in Novum Eboracum. There would be no way for the city to be sufficient if there was a complete lack of order and civilization. Hopefully Adam and Khalida had done a good job of somehow organizing the new settlers into homes and such. Speaking of homes, I wanted an actual home, not the dull tower that we had built out of scrap wood next to the harbor. The building could stay, but I would prefer it if it became an expansion of the town hall so that more people could be present for the town meetings. We would scale it down a bit vertically, but could connect the two and make it completely adjacent to the bay as well.

Adam and Khalida, I had forgotten about them because of the long time it had been since we had actually been in the same room as them. They would both be admitted back into the Imperial Battalion right away, or at least if they wanted to be. I figured Khalida would, considering that the only reason that she hadn't gone on our previous expedition was because she had been mentally injured in making the prophecy that showed us where to go to get the blaze rods and rescue Herobrine. But Adam, I wasn't completely sure about him. Hopefully he would, just because someone that good with redstone equipment could be very helpful if we were to try and set up traps and make some constructions to aid us in the fight. I wanted at least twelve people to be on the expedition together, because we needed as many as possible.

Other than the government, we would need a street system of sorts so that when people moved in they had an immediate lot where they could build their house up from the ground right away. Cobblestone streets would do, I figured. And then there was the problem of the other ships in the navy not having any Aercloud to be used as sails. If we wanted the city to have an active navy, then the ships would have to have some way of actually moving. We would have to find some other material that could be used as a sail at some point.

With all of the things on the agenda for Novum Eboracum to do as a city, there was no way I could possibly answer Prae's question certainly. "I suppose that we'll have to address that at the town meeting. But first of all, we have to destroy the Imperial Battalion building and build us all our own homes. I don't want to be living in a wooden box. Besides, we can use the lot to expand the town hall at a large extent. With all of the people that are popping up in the town, there is no way that they can all stay informed if the town hall that we have now is all the room there is, and I don't think that that's quite enough," I explained to her.

"All passengers, be advised!" we heard Mike's voice shout from behind us up on the upper deck steering the ship toward the bay. "We will be docked back in Novum Eboracum in about one minute. Prepare to disembark as soon as possible."

The ship passed by the tall lighthouse, and I was astonished to see the port. There were five other ships, and they all had masts. The masts weren't made of Aercloud, though; rather, very thin sheets of wool that stretched down from the wooden bars that connected to the crow's nest. The shores of the bay were lined with a cobblestone road, with intersection that led out into the grasslands. The streets were lined with houses and shops, and people were bustling along the roads in groups. There was no longer a farm on the water of the bay, but instead a larger one on the edge of the city three blocks out from the water. Every block held about three buildings on what sidewalk, making twelve in every square block. And where the Imperial Battalion building had stood was an expansion of city hall already built. It was like whoever was conducting the reinforcement of the city was thinking of things right out of my head.

"Look at all of the work they've done," Prae mused, staring out at the birth of the city that was shaping before our eyes. "Who do you think organized all of this? It's really amazing."

"Yeah," I echoed, my breath taken from the sight. "It's a lot less work for us."

"It seems so, but I believe that we paid the price, a drastic one it was," Remington commented, just as fascinated by the sight of Novum Eboracum. "And to think this was all in our own making."

The ship finally stopped at a pier closest to the town hall on the left side. Remington and I lifted up the wooden walkway and dropped it down to the pier, where two men secured it's position. I tossed down a long rope of string and the men tied it around a lone piece of fence that would keep the S.S. Wolfpack from sailing away. "After you," I told Prae, and she walked down to the pier first. I followed her with Remington at my heels, and the four others quickly followed us. The two men at the bottom walked up to me. One of them was probably about thirty years old, and the other was just slightly younger than that. "Is it true that you're the Herald of Survivors?" the younger one asked me, extending a hand to shake. I grasped it, surprised by how firm his grip was.

"Yeah, I'm the Glowstone from the prophecy," I said shortly, uncomfortable that all of these people were here because of me. If it weren't for the prophecy involving me, then all four of the cities in Minecraftia would still be standing. And obviously, that wasn't true anymore.

The older man mouthed the word 'wow' soundlessly, and the other man smiled giddily. They seemed really comforted knowing that I was the chosen one or something, but it just made me feel uncomfortable in the first place. "Thanks, but where are Khalida and Adam?" I asked.

"Khalida and Adam? I do not know exactly where they are at the moment, but you can usually find them in the building complex on Glowstone Lane across from the town hall. There are twelve houses there, and eight of them are for your group. Khalida and Adam occupy two of them, and two others are vacant for the moment. But why are there only seven of you?" the older man asked, causing us to go silent.

"There were… complications on our expedition," I said dully clearly signifying that Jessica hadn't made it back to Novum Eboracum because of death. The two men quickly went red, knowing that they had found a touchy subject and quickly hushed up the thought. "It's OK. Thank you for your service, your work is being put toward ending the Raid of the Endermen once and for all," I comforted them, resting my hand on the younger one's shoulder briefly.

Our group started down the right side of the cobblestone street, and a crowd began to gather. It seemed that people knew exactly who we were and where we had just come from, but no one except for me and Prae knew exactly what had happened that changed everything. People stopped on the other side of the road and stared, pointing us out in awe. There must have already been about two hundred people in the city, I estimated, based off of the buildings that we had seen and the amount of people bustling around in the streets.

Aria walked up adjacent to me. "How do you know that this is the way to Glowstone Lane, or whatever?" she asked me as we walked along the sidewalk.

"Isn't it obvious?" I responded, gesturing toward the end of the loop of the bay. There was the town hall on the edge of the water, a much bigger building than it had been when we first left toward our expedition to the Nether. "It's across the street from the town hall, so we just go to the street that the town hall is on. Apparently, that's called Glowstone Lane."

"I have a funny feeling about what that was named after," she commented, and I couldn't help but smile subtly. It was impossible not to, after all. If that was the game that Aria wanted to play, then so be it. But I hoped that we could find a way to utilize the Eyes of Ender.

**Civilization has resurrected itself in Novum Eboracum, but what does this mean for the many survivors, including the Imperial Battalion? Although the society seems to be building itself together decently, can the organization hold?**

** What will the Imperial Battalion do with the Eyes of Ender? Who will form the rest of the Imperial Battalion, and who will become part of the city's government? And how will the final battle with the Enderdragon play out? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	35. New World Republic

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** Here is a very long chapter, so don't worry that it took me five or six days to update. If it was a normal chapter, I would've updated on Monday, but it was longer, so here we are. Anyways, the actual contents of the story are about 7,700 words long, plus the junk that I put in the author's note. But yeah.**

** Anyway, I was just saying last chapter to stop trying to bust in on my success. And yet, one person reviewed, and then PMed me that he or she could take over the responsibility of managing the Ender Chest. Seriously? I mean, what part of that message do you not understand? I won't return PMs like that, and if you are going to send me messages like that, then shame on you. That is really unbelievable.**

** Whatever. Just please take my advice. After all, doing stuff like that just makes you look like an idiot. So heed my advice.**

** And now, let the story begin!**

**Chapter 35**

**New World Republic**

The group walked along the edge of the cobblestone road toward what I presumed would be Glowstone Lane. It astonished me that Adam and Khalida had worked together to construct everything that we needed, even though some of the ideas I had thought of myself and they had known anyways. I had a hunch that Khalida had done more of the creative work, but there was no point in not giving Adam any credit. Besides, he had had to put up with Loopy for a good amount of time, and considering his natural dislike for her, that must not have been fun for him.

The sun had fully risen up into the sky, hanging just above the trees of a forest a long way east. I remembered roughly passing through the forest on our way to find a good site for a new home base, and that was how we had ended up here. Most of the people who had made their way here probably had passed through those exact same trees in order to settle here.

It still astonished me that the amount of people living in Novum Eboracum had risen so fast. The superfast immigration to the port city almost seemed supernatural; although, I told myself, odds were that that was exactly what it was. Notch had probably led them here so that they would survive the Raid of the Endermen in a somewhat controlled environment. It might have seemed like a good deed, but I knew it was just part of his game to see how much control that he as an individual had.

"How do you think they set up those ships?" I heard Clara say aloud. She and Mike were walking in the back of the group, still feeling somehow separated from the five of us who had been the original members of the Imperial Battalion. Still, I thought that Mike was a great addition to the group because of his captaining skills. Also, his bow and arrow weaponry complemented us melee fighters in the same way that Aria did. Clara, on the other hand, seemed to enter beast mode as soon as enemies appeared and she had her diamond tomahawk in her hand. Even without the dual attack of her extra knife, she was deadly.

It interested me on who would form the rest of the Imperial Battalion. I figured that we needed more people like Mike and Aria who used ranged weaponry, considering that our last battle was against a flying dragon. We still didn't know exactly how we would defeat it. I for one was sure that we would, just taking hint from destiny. Because that was my destiny after all, right? Maybe it was hypocritical to say that, but that was how I felt.

"I'm not certain, but it seems to be a thinner cut of wool," Mike answered, drawing me back to reality. My mind was hopping around into so many different things right now that it was impossible for me to actually take part in a conversation of some level. I was certainly as mesmerized by what the townspeople had done with the rest of the navy as the two of them. We probably had people of every occupation now. Farmers, carpenters, ranchers, tailors, and even an Oracle probably lived in Novum Eboracum at this point. I knew the last one for certain, as we were going to see Khalida right now.

After probably about ten streets that branched out from the harbor out toward the farms that went off to the left, we finally reached a full intersection past the water. There was a street sign there that pointed down the road that we had taken, indicating it as Soulsand Street. The road that was perpendicular to this one was none other than Glowstone Lane, and we paused on the street corner. "Well, here we are. Do we go right or left?" Prae mused.

"Right, I think. The town hall is right on the crest of the water, and that building complex that the man at the pier said Khalida and Adam would be at is across the street from there," suggested Aria, and our group turned to the right onto the next cobblestone street. There was nothing else we could do for now except for trial and error.

On our right was a small house and a shop next to it that read 'Jonathan Mycelium's Crop Shop' with a few pictures of pumpkins, carrots, and bread surrounding the letters. Most likely the house belonged to Jonathan Mycelium, whoever that was. To the left of that was a huge building with about three different entrances because of its grand size. It was the expansion of the town hall, and it was much larger than I had imagined it to be. Between the shop and the town hall was a cobblestone sidewalk that led out to the water, where there was a wooden boardwalk that had fence railings to seal off the bay. On the other side of the town hall was another two buildings, probably a home and a shop like we had seen before. There was no time to explore, though, as across the street were three large houses that took up the block. The corners were empty with small fountains and trees.

"Is that really where we're supposed to live? It feels like we're the center of attention," Clara wondered, staring at the block. There were three houses on each side, it looked like at least considering that we couldn't see the backside from our vantage point.

"That's because that is exactly what we are," Skyler replied bitterly, nodding toward the array of buildings. "I'm just glad that they're all pretty well built."

Indeed they were. The roofs were sloped wood made out of stairs and blocks, and the walls were a colorful red brick with two small windows, one on each the left and right side of the house. They looked so large from here, probably about fifteen blocks in a square. The windows were two blocks by two, and the walls rose four blocks above the floor, leaving plenty of room for ceiling. Fences went around the outside, sealing in rows of flowers that circled the house. There was a small cobblestone path that went in from the street and cut through the grass toward the doors, and the fence stopped on either side of the stone path. Finally, above the door was a sign that read 'Alex Glowstone'. This miracle of modern technology was my house!

"Why in the world would I need something this intricate?" I sputtered, amazed at the sight of the architecture. "I mean, I know that I don't want to live in a wooden box, but this is unbelievable!"

"Sire, you surely are not complaining about the event?" Remington asked me, and I laughed. "Of course not," I said between laughs, "This is amazing!"

My house was in the middle of the block on Glowstone Lane, directly across from the main doors to the town hall. To my left was Prae's house, and to my right was Remington's. Everyone filtered out to go find their own houses, which lined the two sides of the block. The backside was empty for now, even though there were houses built. I would later find out that the only difference with these was that they were vacant and that there was no sign above them signifying the owner's name. For now, though, I walked up the small cobblestone road to my house and entered through the wooden door surrounded by brick blocks.

The inside was as amazing as the outside of the house had been. The floor was made of polished stone bricks, making a sleek and clean looking surface. The two windows gave me view of the greenery outside, but that wasn't even close to the most interesting thing in the house. On the right side of the room was the supposed working area, complete with a crafting table, three furnaces, a brewing stand, and a cauldron. I noticed that there was no enchantment table, but then again I had no idea how to use them.

On the left side of the room was my bed. It was right under the window, centered on that side of the room. There were two parts to it, making it larger than the average bed. On either side was a small chest for me to put my valuables and things that I would need most often. I opened the one on the right, and inside it were all of the things that had been in my chest in the Imperial Battalion building. There were many building supplies, a lot of iron ingots, gold ingots, and redstone dust. Most importantly, there was a large abundance of food. There were stacks of bread, steak, apples, and cooked pork. I took out an apple and took a bite. It was red and juicy, giving me a large abundance of its sugary sweet taste.

In the top right corner of the room was a fireplace. It was built into the brick wall, with iron grates guarding the lowest block so that pets wouldn't be able to jump into the fire. The smoke rose up into the air and through a chimney in the roof, although there wasn't that much smoke to float up anyways.

The bottom right corner was brick like the others, but instead of the corner block being stone brick like all the other blocks in the floor, it was a trapdoor. I stared through the small bits of space in the wooden frame of the trapdoor that provided a clearance to the room that lay below. There was no way for me to make out what was below, it was just too dark. However, there was a wooden button in the brick wall a block above the trapdoor, and I pressed it lightly.

The trapdoor swung open immediately, revealing a now lit up room. It was still hard for me to see what was below, but the walls and floor were made of stone brick and a ladder went down four blocks from the trapdoor to the floor. It was some kind of basement of sorts, and it interested me. It would take an expert redstone user to construct a device that made a trapdoor open and lights turn on at the exact same time, and I saw that in Adam. Putting aside my observations, I put my foot on the first rung and quickly climbed down underground.

The room was lit by lanterns that were powered by redstone circuits, and gave the room a very bright glow to it. I'm sure it would seem glum had it had been dark, considering that the walls and floor were indeed all stone brick, making the air seem a little tight. But it didn't matter since the roof had a few of the lanterns sealed into it. What the room was apparently for was storage, as chests lined the walls. There were three on each side of the room, and across from the wall that the ladder was on was a painting. It wasn't like one that I had ever seen before.

I stepped up closer to it, looking at the chests along the way. Each one was labeled with signs above them. There was one for farming, animals, armor and tools, sand and stone, wood products, and miscellaneous. I figured that they would all be empty, that they would be for me to fill up progressively over time. Hopefully over years of time if Novum Eboracum was able to stand that long, but other cities hadn't been able to. Then again, the Raid of the Endermen was either about to end, or I wouldn't be around to fill up the chests anyways.

At last, I stepped up to the painting and observed it. There was a boy standing there, atop a block of glowstone and holding a diamond sword. It was pointed straight into the air, and his blue sea foam eyes surveyed the area around him. It wasn't pretty. Around the glowstone block was what seemed to be an endless ocean of Endermen, purple eyes glowing and all trying to get closer to the boy. It finally was the dark red shirt and the fading jeans that made me realize; the picture was of me.

Whoever had painted it was certainly good at their job, I thought. The boy in the painting paid a remarkable resemblance to me, almost like it was a picture. Something began stirring inside of me stomach, like butterflies beating their wings against the edges of my insides, making me a little nervous. What if I wasn't able to defeat the Enderdragon? Everyone's lives rested in my hands, and I wasn't sure that I would be able to get out of a situation like the one that was showcased in the painting, of me completely surrounded by Endermen that stretched on for miles. If that happened, I was as good as dead.

The painting stretched from the ceiling to the floor, a full three blocks wide so that the image of me in the painting was actually a little taller than me in real life. It began to creep me out a little bit, so I hurriedly backed away and made my way back up the ladder. Once I was back up on the stone brick floor of my house, I let myself breathe at ease.

There was something about that painting that had caught me off guard. I felt exactly the same as I had when I had first read my prophecy; surprised at the prospect, angered that I had no freewill to stop myself from having to be the one to stop the Endermen, and a fascination that all of this was up to me, and me alone. Why me, I wondered for the millionth time. Why couldn't the world have stayed normal until I passed?

But no, things could never be that easy. There had to be someone for every job, something for every person, a prophecy for every person. But why couldn't my prophecy be simpler? Why had the Oracles chosen me to be the one to fulfill it, and not someone who actually wanted the adventure, someone like Remington?

The truth was that Notch had chosen me for some reason, and everything he did these days had some twisted and meaningful reason to it. So if I was supposed to the one to stop the Endermen, then Notch knew that the hero would need certain qualities, and I happened to be the one to own them and be set in the time period of the Raid of the Endermen.

That was enough time to rest, I figured. The new home was fascinating and all, but I needed to move out so that we could resubmit Adam and Khalida into the Imperial Battalion. So with that, I made sure that I had everything I needed for our final battle; Monarch, all of my iron armor, half of stack of bread, cooked pork, and apples, my diamond pick, iron shovel, enchanted iron axe, a stack of sand, two stacks of cobblestone, and the Eyes of Ender. That was everything I would need after all, so there was no point in taking more than I could carry.

With that, I opened the door of my new house and stepped outside of it, leaving it for a long time. Walking down the cobblestone path to Glowstone Lane, I took one last look at the only safe haven that I knew for now. There was no time to rest, though. We had to get an interim government set up for Novum Eboracum, elect the new members of the Imperial Battalion, and then figure out what the Eyes of Ender actually did. For now, I had to go see Khalida and ask about the growth of the city.

The sky had lost all of the red tint that had splattered it in the early morning as the sun hung over the eastern land, appearing to rest on the roof of my house. Remington was outside his house already, leaning on the butt of his diamond broadsword as it rested on the cobblestone path to the public road that cut through the grassy dirt. The flow of people was lessened here, probably because there were only two shops and the town hall on this block. I imagined how packed it would be once we announced the town meeting.

Since there was nowhere else to turn, I walked along the cobblestone road to Remington, who turned quickly as I approached. "Why, hello there, sire!" he called out to me, waving me over like I hadn't already been coming to him. "How do you fancy the grand new houses that the town has supplied to us?"

By now I had reached his house's path. "Fine, actually. They're certainly better than the wooden box that we had built ourselves," I explained to him, although I didn't explain to him that the mysterious painting that was in my basement. If none of the others had pictures of themselves like that, then it would just be awkward for me.

"To Ms. Glass' house you travel to, then?" he queried, and I nodded slightly. "Forgive me for my assumption, but it was hard to not realize your endeavors."

"It's not a problem," I assured him, shrugging it off. It wasn't actually rude or anything, it was just Remington being typical Remington. "Do you know what side of the block that she lives in? It would be kind of frustrating to walk down one side of the road and have her not be there, and then have to turn back around."

"Khalida's manor actually rests around the fountain corner from mine," he exclaimed to me excitedly, and we started walking along the cobblestone street to her house. The fountain was shooting water from the single tower of water made of iron blocks, and the water rested at the bottom basin, splashing around due to the falling liquid. It was quite pretty, making this part of the city seem rich, sort of. I wasn't rich at all, just important. But that sounded just as self-centered as rich. I didn't know what to call it in truth.

We turned onto the next road, Forge Alley, which I pointed out to Remington. The knight wannabe laughed that a street was named after him. "You never know, sire, the surname Forge could be applicable to many a fellow," he protested, but there was no denying the amused grin on his face. We finally reached the front of the next house, past the fountains.

Khalida's house was just the same as all of the others, which I was surprised to learn considering her strange personality. The flowers that circled the walls of the house within the wooden fencing did seem a little overabundant, matching her lack of organization. There was no point in the two of us waiting for anyone else, so I hurried up the cobblestone path toward the front of the Oracle's house. The sign above the door read 'Khalida Glass' House', signifying that Remington had indeed been right about the inhabitant.

Knocking on the door, I turned and stared at the city around us. It still amazed me that all of this had been built in so little time. We had only been gone for one night, right? At least, that was what I thought, because it was early night when we went into the Nether, and only midnight once we had exited the Aether to get back to the mysterious Temple of the Overworld.

After a few seconds of waiting, the wooden door swung open to the inside, revealing a girl wearing a white shirt and a skirt made up of about seven different types of fabrics. Her gray hair was tied into two pigtails on either side of her head by a thousand or so beads. Khalida smiled at the sight of the two of us, waving us inside her house. "I'm glad that you guys are back! I brewed so many potions for the final battle, you are taking me, right?" she exclaimed, shooting words at us like a rapid fire dispenser.

"Yeah, actually, I was coming over to tell you we needed you to join the Imperial Battalion again. We only have seven people now, but adding you makes eight. I'm hoping Adam will join back up too, and we need three more people," I explained to her, and then realized that I had only said we had seven. So Khalida would have to learn about Jessica's demise. But apparently that wouldn't be a problem.

She closed her eyes and mouthed a couple words under her breath, so quiet that I couldn't hear them, that was, if she had even spoken at all. Just as suddenly, she rose back to a normal stance, for she had hunched over in doing what she had just done. "I send Jessica Sandstone my prayers. I hope that she rests in peace," she said audibly, eyes now a dull gray.

I shook off the feeling of apprehension that I always got when I was near her. She was just too weird for my liking. "Anyways, I was going to ask you. How did you guys get the town growth to accelerate at such a speed?" I queried, and she raised her eyebrows.

"Well, we have about two hundred here now. I know because every new citizen has to register at the town hall. It's easy to build a lot over three days when you have so many people to help you with every aspect of the town. Now that we have all the basics, all that is left is for the town to expand out into the plains as more people arrive," she replied.

"Wait, wait one second," I interrupted, holding my hand up as if that was what was actually stopping her. "Did you just say that we were gone for three days?"

"Yeah, how long did you think you were gone for?" she shrugged.

Something was very wrong about all of this that she was telling me. "We were only gone for one night, and we're back here now," I protested.

Her mouth made a large o shape as she somehow understood my problem. "But you guys spent a significant amount of that time in the Nether though, right?" she asked.

"True, but what difference does that make at all? Besides, we weren't in the Nether for very long anyways. Just five hours or so," I explained to her, but Khalida shook her head in sadness or something. Maybe it was pity. But what had I done wrong?

"Time in the Nether moves as much as ten times faster than in the Overworld or Aether," she explained to me, making her hands motion in a circle in front of her like two clock hands rapidly moving. "Five hours in the Nether is the equivalent to more than two days of time passing in the Overworld. Therefore, you were actually gone for three days."

This was bad news. The more time that we spent, the more time that the Endermen had to prepare for the battle that we were sure to have while we were spending energy fighting their armies on our way to Novum Eboracum. We would have to leave very soon, hopefully by sundown if we really wanted to be making good time. "Alright then, we have to leave as soon as we can. Khalida, I'm assuming that you know how to organize a town meeting?" She nodded solemnly. "OK then, go do that as soon as you can. Remington, gather round the current Imperial Battalion of the city and get them into the town hall as soon as possible. Have the group start brainstorming ideas for the next three people to join."

"What shall you do, sire?" Remington queried as he opened the door for Khalida, who was leaving in a hurry.

"Me, I'll convince Adam to rejoin the Imperial Battalion. We need someone as skilled as him with redstone if we want to try and thwart the Enderdragon. And I'm not taking no for answer, no matter how much Adam rejects the idea," I assured him, following the knight out of the door. As the other two went off toward the street corner, I sprinted past the houses of Clara and Mike and turned onto the back part of the block.

The houses here were vacant. I took no time to observe their qualities, though, instead sprinting at full speed toward the next intersection. On the other side of the street was an array of shops, supplying everything from books to a hotel for people who didn't have a lot to buy a home yet in Novum Eboracum.

I turned the corner past another one of the iron fountains and saw Adam walking out of his house with a backpack stuffed to the limit and slung over his shoulder. He saw me immediately, and turned away to start walking away toward the town hall. There was no way that he could evade me, however, and I hurried up to him. "Adam!" I called out to him.

Once I had reached him, he turned slowly to me. "What could you want that could bother me right now? I'm going to go start hooking up streetlights around the city," he growled through gritted teeth, eyebrows in a cross and obviously not in a good mood.

"Wow, you're really excited that we're all back in Novum Eboracum," I muttered, rolling my eyes that Adam was so hostile as soon as we reached the city again. "Anyways, I need to ask you something. Will you rejoin the Imperial Battalion?"

Adam sighed with annoyance. "Yeah, yeah. Khalida told me about how I needed to rejoin and how we needed three more people already."

I raised an eyebrow. There was no way that Khalida had somehow made it to Adam's house first. "When did she tell you all of that?" I questioned him.

"When she got the vision of Jessica's demise. She knew right then and there, since she was leading the town with your absence. That's why none of the houses have been marked off for Jessica, because she already knew that there was no need to build one for Jessica," Adam explained to me, turning back toward his house.

"There's a town meeting now, by the way. Up at the town hall," I informed him as he walked with his back to me up the cobblestone path to his house.

"Where do you think I'm going, you idiot? I can't walk around in public with all of my redstone supplies. Even if you want me to take some on our trip, I don't need ten stacks of it. I'll be down in a couple minutes," he yelled at his house, with the sound waves bouncing off the brick toward me. His arms tattooed with the green markings from Magnam Civitatem swung the door open, and it slammed shut. I rolled my eyes again now that he was inside and continued walking back toward Glowstone Lane.

While I was passing Aria's house, which was the closest to the intersection with Skyler's in the middle of the block, a loud bell rang from the top of the town hall. On top of the domed roof were about nine note blocks all built into a box, and they were chiming a bell. Apparently this was a signal for a town meeting that the town had organized before the Imperial Battalion had made it back to the city, as everyone was making their way toward the town hall now. The cobblestone streets became a mad rush of people as they made their way to Glowstone Lane to the large domed building. I squeezed my way through the sea of bodies, ignoring the hushed whispers that I was the Chosen One, and made my way up to the double wooden doors that served as the entrance to the towering building.

I opened them, sneaking my way in amid the waves of people hurrying to try and get a good seat. Something about the inside of the building told me that that wouldn't end up being a major problem. The seats were aligned so that they faced the left side of the building, where a large column of seats sat that were raised a block above all the others. Those seats were actually against a table, and I counted them. I had already known the number of seats just from inference, but counting made me sure. There were twelve up there, enough for what would be the entire Imperial Battalion would be after this meeting.

I made my way across the empty aisle as people found their seats across the entire town hall, filling up relatively quickly. The others in the Imperial Battalion were standing around the table at what I assumed would be the front of the meeting room. With so many wooden seats, the architect had changed it up and made this table out of stone, like you found on the walls of mines. You had to smelt cobblestone into it, as I remembered from the schooling back in Imperial Plains. It was rock solid, and looked a lot neater than cobblestone.

Adam was the only one who wasn't gathered by the table now. "Does it really matter where we sit?" Mike asked Khalida, who was twirling a swirl of gray hair and beads in one hand frustratingly. "Of course it does! Don't you know anything about organization?" she shrieked.

"And this coming from debatably the most disorganized person in the world," Prae whispered, nudging me with her elbow in my side. I had stifle a small laugh as she said that to me, because it was one of the most true statements you could make about Khalida.

"Oh, look who's making a big problem over absolutely nothing?" Adam shouted over the bustle of the crowd finding their seats in front of us. "Loopy, why don't you get a life?" he taunted as he walked closer to the rest of us.

Skyler huffed audibly in frustration. "I forgot about this tool. Now we've got to endure all this nonsense along with the usual junk," he sighed, smirking.

And here begins the implosion of the Imperial Battalion. The idea I thought of could help stifle the fighting, but only if a second to talk without being shouted over by the others. "Guys, you do realize that fighting in front of the entire city is going to set an image for yourselves? And this isn't exactly a good one," I said to everyone, causing the group to be quiet for the first time in multiple minutes. "Alright. I have an idea to minimize the fighting and get us a little bit more organized on the inside."

"Like how I put up little name tags at each seat so that we know where we're all supposed to sit in front of everyone?" Khalida interrupted eagerly.

I convinced myself not to reprimand her. How was she already in a hyper mood from the bad one that she had just minutes ago? There was no point in asking, I figured. "Yeah. But anyways, it'll work better once we have the entire twelve of the Imperial Battalion, so I'll suspend the organization of the idea until after the town meeting. Do you guys think that you can hold on that long without imploding from the inside out?" I explained to them.

The group nodded at the same time, and I breathed a sigh of relief. "OK, so let's find our seats then," Aria suggested. There were no objections from the others, so I circled the table around the back so I could find my seat. I was in the middle of the seats, sixth from the right. Prae was on my right, as usually, and Remington found his sat on my left. The three vacant seats were split, with two on my side and one on the other. Once the group was situated and there appeared to be no one else shuffling around finding their seats in the crowd, I stood.

The chatter from the two hundred or so people ceased almost immediately, and I surveyed the hall. The rows in the crowd were twenty seats long, and there were thirty that stretched all the way to the back. The first ten rows were packed, and the next two rows had some people spread throughout them, but not even close to being full. Doing a quick calculation in my head, I determined the hall could hold as many as six hundred people, and that excluded standing room only.

"Welcome to the second ever town meeting of Novum Eboracum. Since our last one four six days ago, the town has grown a lot larger in strength, population, and assets. I encourage you to keep opening up shops and the like in order to sustain our community with every resource possible," I realized that I didn't know the date all of a sudden, and putting aside my formal public speaking skills, I continued. "Um, does anyone in the crowd know the date today?"

About fifteen people raised their hands, and I pointed at a girl about fourteen or fifteen in the second row. "Today is June 25th," she called out to me, and then added on a little quieter, "Three and a half weeks since Reckoning Day."

A silence fell upon the hall, but I was determined to keep up the tempo. "Thank you, Ms…" I continued, waiting for her to announce her name.

"Vanessa Ice," she finished, smiling up at me. She had blond hair that would have stretched down past her shoulders, but it was instead tied up in a long ponytail. Her green eyes shimmered very much like emeralds, which complemented the dark green shirt that she was wearing over black skinny jeans.

"Ms. Ice," I repeated, shaking off my trance. I had a girlfriend, I reminded myself, feeling almost like a character in one of those romance drama novels that had been written just for entertainment back in Imperial Plains. I had hated those, I remembered, but the adventure ones fascinated me. And now, I was on my own adventure worthy of its own story.

"Yes, yes. Anyways, our first order of business before anything else is filling up the rest of the Imperial Battalion. As you all might have heard, we are the base of the government here in Novum Eboracum, but our skills are more applicable towards fighting. Right now, obviously, that means that we are fighting to stop the Raid of the Endermen. But you see, we have three seats up here that are vacant at the moment, and three houses on the block across the street are in the same condition. So we're accepting three people into the Imperial Battalion for now," I announced, and the whispers renounced themselves. "Anyone who wishes to make a suggestion may raise their hands now."

Slowly, a few people began raising hands, but only those who were brave enough to be the first ones to speak. A man about thirty years old in the fourth row was the first man that I pointed at to make a nomination. "What about the Judge? He was a chair member of the town council back in New Copenhagen, so he has some political experience."

I was surprised that the first nomination wasn't actually one for the person who was speaking, but that made it all the better. If someone else was giving credit to a person, then that would mean that the nominee must have some kind of track record that earned them respect. "May the man referred to as the Judge please stand?" I called out, and an older man who was sitting only a couple of seats from the person who suggested him stood.

When I said that he was a little bit older, that was certainly true. The man was in no shape to fight at all, but he wasn't exactly frail either. A thin layer of gray hair covered his skull, and his face had some lines through it. I didn't think that he had been recommended for fighting, but more for the political side of the job description. The man propped himself up on a wooden cane, and bowed to me a little bit. I guessed that he was about seventy. "Samuel Cactus at your service, Herald of Survivors," he spoke in a gritty voice. "But you can call me Judge."

A little bit of laughter was emitted from the people sitting around him, apparently the people that he had befriended and made their journey from New Copenhagen to Novum Eboracum with. "Forgive me for my poor shape at the moment," the Judge spoke in a raspy voice to me, "But I am recovering from the long trip down to this city from my old town. I never saw it fit for an old man like me to walk that far, but I did survive, right?" he joked, grinning.

"Is it true that you were a government official before the Raid of the Endermen?" I asked him from my perch above the crowd.

"Yes, it is true. But I seriously don't want a job in the Imperial Battalion. Whatever fighting you guys do, I'll drag you behind. Well, let's just say that I've been a veteran for a very long time and haven't had experience," he told me from below.

"We do need a mayor though," Clara called from the right of me, a couple seats down. "A government official in that position would just need to pass laws from the city."

The Judge seemed to consider this position from his spot on the floor. "I guess I could possibly do that. As long as it doesn't involve any physicality," he shrugged.

"Alright then, case closed. Judge… um, is that what I should call you formally?" I began, hitting an awkward roadblock in my speech.

The group around the Judge laughed again, with even the Judge himself cracking a smile. "Yes, that will do just fine. Judge," he confirmed.

"OK, Judge, do you promise to serve your fellow citizens of Novum Eboracum as best as you can in this New World Republic?" I said loudly, and he nodded yes.

"So it is settled. Welcome to the Mayor of Novum Eboracum!" I continued, waving off that subject like a check on a chart. "Now, we need three positions in the Imperial Battalion. Try to keep your suggestions young and healthy, as physical fitness is recommended for a man or woman trying to save the world."

The words came out a little oddly, but the effect was realized by the people of the town hall. And so the meeting continued on for about an hour, and once we had elected the new people in the Imperial Battalion and addressed a couple other issues it adjourned. We had set up a force of fifteen Royal Guardsmen that would act as a police force around the city. There was no doubt that they were named after the faction of the old world, where the Royal Guardsmen would be the most respected people in the town.

We had also authorized the building of walls along the coastline with fortifiers to hold off attacks from the sea. Because of the city's current rapid expansion, there would be none where the city stopped in the mainland, because the next day there would most likely be a house there.

Most importantly, obviously, were the new additions to the Imperial Battalion. The three people quickly went off to their houses on the block with all of the Imperial Battalion's houses to set up shop before we left to find out what the Eyes of Ender did. As the people of the city filtered out of the town hall, the nine original members of the Imperial Battalion stood outside on the grass across the street from our houses. Everyone was talking about the events of the meeting, which had carried us on until about one o' clock in the afternoon, except for me and Prae. The two of us instead just stared at the houses that had become our homes.

"So what do you think? Will we be able to beat the Enderdragon?" she asked me in a hushed voice so that none of the others could hear. It was like we had some alliance apart from the rest of the group, with me sharing only the most important information with her. No, it wasn't like that, it was just she was my girlfriend. There couldn't be anything wrong with that?

"As long as we stay focused," I responded, staring out at the blue sky. Apprehension was beginning to take over me, but I had to stay strong. If I was to lead the group to hopefully victory, then I would have to stay focused too. "Hopefully the new additions to the group will do well. We can't afford a weak link."

The first person to make it back from setting up their home was Vanessa Ice, the girl who had given me the date at the beginning of the town meeting. She had a diamond sword of her own like mine, thin and deadly, but she preferred to use a bow and arrow. What was interesting was that with every arrow, she lit them on fire before she shot them. That way, not only did the actual bow cause damage to the enemies, but it also made them catch fire. She already had iron armor, like the two others that were joining the Imperial Battalion already.

Next up was Matthew Pane, a sixteen year old from Magnam Civitatem who had been a Royal Guardsmen. Because of this, he by default had a diamond broadsword and iron armor, along with the same red markings that Remington had. The two had apparently known each other, but looked nothing alike. Matthew had a stocky built, more for fighting with brute force than with agility and short attacks like me. He had a sense of humor as well, which Remington had already commented on. The two of them had worked together for a couple of months when Remington had first passed his Reckoning Day and was new to the job. I probably would have experienced a very similar orientation, had it not been for the destruction of Imperial Plains. With black hair and hazel eyes, he looked like he could threaten to attack at any second.

Lastly, there was Nicole Wheat, a seventeen year old from Imperial Plains who had remarkably been one of the people on top of the skyscraper that had fallen on its side amidst the mob attacks through the city. I had presumed that there was no way that there could be any survivors from that incident except for Frank, Natalie, and I. Apparently, though, she and three others out of the dozen or so people had survived the fall with minor injuries. One of her friends had broken an arm, but they had been relatively fine, give or take scratches and bruises. Nicole herself was also a Royal Guardsmen, and since she had sacrificed her life willingly for me to get away, I was ecstatic that she had survived. Her shoulder length brown hair stayed straight, never even crossing single strands somehow. She had blue eyes like mine, but they were darker in a way that made her seem almost menacing.

Since the group was assembled and the newcomers had pledged their allegiance, we were set to go to the stronghold. We were about to begin our journey when a man ran up to our group, middle aged with a scruffy beard and rough workman's hands. I turned to him, and he stopped in front of me once he reached our group in a hurry. "Alex Glowstone! I have built something most essential to your efforts in defeating the Enderdragon," he panted, doubling over with his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

This was a little annoying since we had been ready to go supposedly. "What is it, sir? And please make it quick, we have to leave for the Enderdragon as soon as possible."

"Mr. Glowstone, I'd like you to have this. Freshly made for a boy your age, and made of only the best diamonds," he exclaimed, holding out to me an entire suit of armor. Except, it wasn't like the iron one that I had since the time before we left for the Nether the first time weeks ago. This one was a bright, shiny turquoise, and it hit me what this was. It was a full suit of diamond armor, and it was for me.

I took it from his hands, surprised by the weightlessness of the normally heavy material. "Wow!" I exclaimed, putting the clothing into my toolbelt except for the helmet. I slid the material onto my head, where it fit snugly around my skull and felt comfortable against my skull. This was a luxury that I previously had not been able to afford. "How did you make this?"

"I got it from the miners that put so much effort into their work, sir. I do hope that it aids you. After all, if you want to be one of the greatest heroes of all time like Syndicate or the like, then you have to dress like one," he explained, shying off.

"Wait!" I called out, and he looked back shyly. "Take my iron armor, at least. Let someone else use it. And tell them it was once used by Alexander Glowstone, the last hope of the Overworld. Thank you, um, blacksmith."

The man took the iron armor from my arms and tucked it away inside his backpack. I smiled at the sight of him running away to tell his family or whatnot of his encounter. The group stared at me, diamond helmet and all, as I lifted an Eye of Ender high above my head. "What secrets do you hide from us, little one?"

** Wow, powerful. Now that the characters actually know the date and time thanks to a smoking hot new addition to the Imperial Battalion, there will be some sense of order in the chronological sequence of it all. Of course, spending two days in the Nether didn't help that much.**

** What is to come of the expedition to defeat the Enderdragon once and for all? How will the rookies of the Imperial Battalion deal with all of the commitment, effort, and extreme physical capabilities required of them? And what is happening to Sergeant Richter as we speak? Find out next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	36. My Only Fear is Fear

** Hello once more, faithful readers.**

** As usual, thanks for reading TPoM. This chapter was kind of emotional for me because it completes the Earth story arc, and that really reminded me how close we are to the end of the story. I hope you guys are still enjoying the ride, I guess.**

** Alright then, so, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 36**

**My Only Fear is Fear**

I don't like prison cells. The lack of space for you to move around discomforts me, let alone there is barely any option to stand at all. And just to make things worse, the walls are painted gray and white to make the room feel even more bland than it could have been before. Overall, the entire atmosphere just gets on my nerves more than I'd like.

The only good thing about my current situation was that I would be out soon. As soon as the Resistance had brought me back to Manchester with the President's daughter, they'd thrown me into this cell and told me to wait two days. General Walker would be able to talk to have a talk with me on that date, so they would supply me with food and such while I waited.

There was an analog clock above the iron door with the grated window, and most of the time I waited on the wooden bed and stared at it, waiting. Even the bed wasn't comfortable, serving better as a chair than something to sleep on. It was basically a wooden board that someone had thrown a blanket or two on. But there was nowhere else for me to rest, so I waited.

They'd thrown me in here on the 23rd, and according to the clock, fifty three hours had passed. It was about one o' clock in the world around me, and yet in this barred cell life felt timeless. That was a feeling that I found hard to enjoy, considering it was hell waiting.

Honestly, I had absolutely no idea what General Walker could possibly want with me. I was just another prisoner in my eyes, a soldier who had disobeyed his orders and should be sentenced to death; or even worse, life in a cell like this. I couldn't bear the thoughts that I was finished, and for the first time in years, a tear leaked out from my left eye.

I shook my head hurriedly, blinking to clear out the water. Maybe you're an imprisoned soldier, maybe you're as good as dead, but you're still a soldier. And soldiers don't freaking cry.

Bracing myself for another hour or so of waiting, I heard the jangle of keys. I perked up, ears sharp all of a sudden to try and hear if they were being inserted into my iron door. Trying not to look to hopeful in case a guard opened the door and looked at me stupidly, I urged myself not to move a single muscle, instead staring at the bars. They were thick, limiting my view of the hallway with about ten other prison cells just like the one I was sitting in. I swore that I could see movement on the other side of the bars.

Just when I was beginning to question myself, the door swung open to reveal a single guard with an assault rifle slung over his shoulder so that it hung against his chest, secured by a leather strap. There was a pistol holster on his belt too, along with what looked like concussion grenades and a small jar of pepper spray. I got the message not to try and mess with this guy. Like I had been planning to anyways.

"Sergeant Dylan Richter?" he said gruffly, staring at me from behind a visor hooked up to his combat helmet. I nodded, and stood up slowly from the bed. I was finally going to be out of this room, but there was the problem that I might not have that good of company.

He watched me closely, and I guessed that if I could see his eyes, they would be as narrow as humanly possible. "You're to follow me to a security checkpoint at close range. If you try anything, I'll blow your goddamn head off with minimal hesitation. Am I clear?" he continued, his mouth barely even opening with each word to show perfectly white teeth.

Once again, I nodded subtly, and he jerked his head behind him. "Sorry for the tough beginning. Kind of necessary, since I get a lot of rough prisoners, and I need to let them know the message," he explained, motioning for me to live the cell. I looked back in the cramped space that I had spent the last two days and shook off any hard feelings. It wasn't the cell's fault that I was trapped in there. What in the world was I thinking, blaming things on inanimate objects? Maybe I was a little crazy after all.

"No problem. Just don't blow my head off, OK?" I replied, and he chuckled a little bit. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad having to walk with a rough guard after all.

He led the way down the hallway, and I watched the metal walls as I passed by them just behind the guard. "Corporal Maxis," he informed me, and I assumed that was his name. Then again, what else could it have been when he said it in that situation? "I was a German before I joined the Resistance," he continued, turning to me briefly as he led me past the iron doors of the prison cells. "According to your files, you lived in the United States?"

"Yeah. A Resistance civilization camp in Rockford, Illinois," I confirmed, remembering the days of my childhood for the first time in a while. The Resistance had set up large areas for people not part of the armies to live. They had been like a community from before the war, with malls businesses and stuff like that. But everything was limited to the specific camps as to not give away the location of others if Anonymous decided to launch an attack on one. They were usually about the size of a small city, and they were about fifty of them spread across all of the countries that had joined the Resistance. Most of them were in Canada since the country was so large so that they would be harder to find. Often, people would join the military from the country they had come from, the US for me, and when they were done with their service, they would leave to start a family in a completely different country. Corporal Maxis' parents might be from Canada themselves. My dad was in fact from France originally, and had moved to Rockford after his service at age thirty seven. He died too early in my childhood for me to remember him, but I knew a lot my mom had explained to me about him.

"It seems that those days of innocence living in community camps are long gone, wouldn't you say?" Corporal Maxis mused to me, shaking his head quickly to rid his mind of the happy memories from before enlisting in the Resistance. He began up the stone steps up from the prison hallway and up toward the surface of the ground. The stairs were lit with flickering light bulbs, creating a gloomy atmosphere for the prisoners being led down the steps. I had barely even noticed the failing lights when I had been walking down these steps, too exhausted to care. Besides, my mind had been somewhere else during those moments.

"I don't know if we'll ever know days where that is the norm again. What a luxury it must have been to have lived before the attacks from Anonymous had started," I noted, thinking what my life might've been like had it all been like those years up to the point that I had turned seventeen years old. In truth, it was impossible, because those years had been influenced by the war as well. There was no safe haven in this world now, it seemed.

"Now, I hope that isn't how you always think, yes? Thinking of life to be a nightmare will influence it to become just that through your eyes," Maxis commented, opening the door up into the Law & Order building of the Resistance European HQ in Manchester. He turned back to me for a split second. "Now remember. Try anything, and I blow your goddamn head off. Even better, I get to do right in front of everybody, so I'll get a promotion," he warned.

I grinned at the prospect at that, even though the joke involved my brain to be crushed into a million different pieces. "I don't know if you want to do that. It would make an awfully hard mess to clean up," I retorted. Even though I couldn't see his eyes due to the visor, I was sure that they would've twinkled jokingly as he flashed a grin back at me.

He gave the door a thrust so that it would stay open for long enough that I could walk through it without having to tap it open. The bright light of the ground floor of the building momentarily blinded me, and I had to hold the back of my hand over my eyes to keep them in a shadow so that I could still see relatively well. The metal door slammed shut behind me, making me jump in my combat boots. I was still in my combat uniform, I just had absolutely no weapons on me. It was the first time that that was true of me in a long time.

It was only a few steps until we were at the door to the outside of the camp. The sky was overcast due to the normal England weather, always looking like it was about to start pouring rain. I remembered my first visit to Manchester, before I had been stationed in Sweden and later moved up the ranks to the Swedish Special Forces Squads. That didn't mean it didn't feel very familiar. Helicopters constantly flew in and out of the base, usually not five minutes passing without a fleet of them coming over the barbed wire fences or a convoy of vehicles passing through one of the six checkpoints. At the very center of all the action was an area nicknamed the hub, which was the intersection between four buildings, probably the most important ones in the entire facility. The Law & Order building, which I had just exited, was where the prison cells for criminals against the Resistance were held and interrogated. There was the Armory, where all the weapons were held and dealt out to the soldiers. Then there was the Comm Center, mostly underground, but with the most complex and high tech communication methods in the world. The wattage of the camp was about forty percent committed to just that building. And finally there was the Command, a building where the highest ranking officials made their public appearances to the soldiers and held private meetings. It was opposite from the Law & Order building, and since we were crossing the pavement in its direction, I assumed that that was where we were heading.

"You're practically a celebrity around here now," Corporal Maxis told me, speaking more to himself than me I'd guess. "Not exactly in a good way, but everyone knows who you are. There are probably people pointing and whispering about you right now."

"You talk about this camp like it's a middle school," I snorted, but I still checked my surroundings to make sure that no one was taking notice of me.

"Sometimes it can feel like it is. I wish I was a field operative like you, I feel like an idiot cooped up in Manchester for my entire life. There's no glory to escorting prisoners around the camp instead of accomplishing actual objectives out there," Maxis sighed.

The comment caused me to think about my three years or so out in the field. It was a rough life than you could ever expect countering living in Manchester. And yes, the thrill and adrenaline ran a lot higher when you had a gun in hand, but if you had a hot weapon that usually meant that your enemies were in the exact same situation. Death could happen at any second just because of the amount of enemies gripping their own guns and aiming at you.

Then again, I was best off just staying quiet and not judging this guy's opinion. I had to remember that I was still the guy unarmed tagging along with a man with an assault rifle in hand. It would be best for me to just agree with him and not give him a reason to get ticked at me, even if I had started out well and with him trusting me to some extent.

As we reached the doors of the Command, I began to feel a little nervous. There were many punishments that could possibly be in order for me, and they began to run through my head at breakneck speed as I began feeling apprehensive. The Command was a very large building, and although the layout was very simple, it felt like a maze to me in my nerve-wracked state.

"You're to meet with General Walker in the debriefing room on the third floor. I'll escort you there," Corporal Maxis informed me, glancing down at his notes to make sure that he got all of the information correct. "Take the stairs on the left side of the room. That way will get us to the debriefing room as fast as possible. And keep in mind that you're still a prisoner."

I nodded shortly, recognizing the fact that I was indeed still the bad guy in our situation. I walked to Corporal Maxis' right as he led the way across the polished floors toward a door that led into the stairway. There were two armed guards on either side of the door, both of them carrying submachine guns. Maxis held a small identification card up to one of them, and the guard nodded in confirmation that we could pass through, pushing open the door to the stairwell for us. I passed through first, with Maxis walking behind me so that he had a good view of me.

The stone stairs seemed very threatening and dull, as if they were daring me to trip over one of them and fall pathetically down the road I had come. I thought over what Corporal Maxis had said about the meeting that I was headed to. He had called it debriefing, which meant that I would that most likely I would be asked to confirm what had happened in my previous field action and assigned to a new task. That couldn't have been the word he had meant to use, right?

On the third floor of the stairs was a door that would lead us into the practical part of the third floor, excluding the break in the stairs that I was standing on at the moment. Once again, Maxis pulled ahead of me and opened the door. There were two armed guards here as well, in very much the same situation to make sure that no one who was not supposed to be in the Command was moving around floor to floor. I followed Maxis through the doorway and tailed him down a hallway. At the very end of the wooden hallway was a door.

"General Walker should be waiting for you in there. Serve the Resistance well, Sergeant," Corporal Maxis told me, nodding as I stepped up to the door labeled 'Debriefing'. Why was he saluting me if I was basically a criminal. Oh, yeah, I thought. Technically I outranked him in the military. That couldn't be true anymore, could it? After all, at this point all I wanted to do was go to some community camp and settle down there. I didn't want to fight anymore, and I didn't want to be thrown in a prison. The latter was most likely my fate, so I would have my title removed from my name and just become Dylan Richter.

"Thanks. I hope that someday you're able to fight in the field, if that's truly what you want," I saluted Corporal Maxis, thrusting my hand from my forehead in the old United States military tradition. He grinned a little bit and walked back in the other direction, and I turned back to the door in front of me. All of the apprehension that had been riddling at me made a sudden return, and I took a deep breath. My terrible fate would be decided here.

I twisted the door knob and entered the room. There was a large table in the center, a round table with six seats. Seated at them were General Walker and four men dressed in Navy SEAL uniforms, with one of the seats empty. I assumed that it was for me. Besides the table, there was a large screen with a graphic of the territories of Europe and who currently had control of them between the Resistance and Anonymous.

"Welcome back to Manchester, Sergeant Richter. Please, take a seat here. We have a lot to discuss involving your future," General Walker greeted me from her seat. The empty seat was between her and one of the SEALs, and I made my way over to it. All of the SEAL operatives had their eyes fixed on me, daring to try anything that a criminal would do. I didn't understand that, after all, all I had done was leave that camp and accomplish objectives that helped the Resistance in huge impacts that they wouldn't have been able to accomplish themselves.

The seat was wooden with metal legs, not the most comfortable thing in the world but definitely sturdy enough that it served its purpose well. I slid down into it with ease, surveying the other people at the table. Every eye was locked on me as I sat there, making me feel a little bit uneasy. "General Walker, you called for me to meet you here?" I heard myself say.

The woman clicked pen against the table so that the tip was sticking out of it, and she began to write on a piece of notebook paper. "As you know, Sergeant Richter, you committed a crime against the Resistance. You deserted the camp that you were supposed to be located at and used military equipment to accomplish unauthorized tasks. Normally these crimes would render very severe punishments," she began, not looking up from her paper as she began drawing some kind of diagram. Normally? Was I somehow free from punishments?

"However, it has come to my attention that the nature of the work you did in the field while on desertion was quite helpful to the cause of the Resistance. Although your mission in Stockholm was no more than a massacre of Anonymous soldiers to us, it clearly has something to do with your relationship with Markus Persson. Dylan, let me get this straight," she continued, stopping from drawing on the notebook paper to look back up at me. "You can't keep up these relations with Markus Persson. It is purely a fluke, he is a criminal to the entire Resistance and Anonymous as well. To relate to him yourself should be a crime, but I'm once again giving you a pass for reasons I'll explain in a second. But anything, any kind of contact or any visiting Stockholm without permission from the Resistance, it will be considered as bad as treason in our book. Is this clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," I replied, although I knew it would be impossible for me to stop working with Notch. He would always be under my skin, and anyways, what about the folder that he had given me? The Resistance guards that had captured me hadn't considered it a weapon, so it had been left in my backpack. It was there right now. But I couldn't open it quite yet. Notch had said that there was a time that I would have to open it, and only then. I knew it wasn't that time yet, so for now it would just have to lay at rest in my backpack.

She leaned in closer to me. "Just to make sure I'm clear. I'm taking a lot of shit off your record so that you can still work with us. If you screw anything up, then you're jailed for life." I wasn't sure what was more threatening, the harsh words that Walker was speaking to me or the death stares that I was attracting from the Navy SEAL onlooker. There was nowhere to turn if I wanted to not be scared out of my body by threats.

"Rescuing the President's daughter certainly helped you a lot. She sends you her thanks from a community camp in Amsterdam. The political leaders will have to stay there for a while until the heat dies down surrounding them. That plane crash certainly made things interesting," General Walker mused, going back to the diagram she was drawing. "Now, to brief you on current events. As you can see from the chart being projected on the screen in front of you, we're making absolutely no progress in making up any territory in Europe except for Spain. Portugal is still in Anonymous hands, and so is the majority of Spain, but we appear to be pushing back their front lines. If we can cut off the supply routes completely, then it is only a matter of time before Portugal and the rest of Spain fall.

"Germany and Switzerland are about as far as we can get when you want battlegrounds controlled by us. The Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, and Poland are all up for grabs, and everything in Europe east of that is Anonymous controlled. We have Norway and Denmark, Anonymous has Finland, and obviously Sweden is the biggest battleground in the Western Hemisphere right now. You probably know that first hand, but just a quick update."

"What we are focusing on today, however is Spain. Intelligence shows that there will be a meeting in a facility a couple miles north of Madrid, deep in enemy territory. This isn't just any meeting, though. This goes right up there with Operation Tombstone from 2137. Back then, there was a meeting of all the Anonymous leaders; political, society, and military in Slovakia. A French branch of Air Force operatives went in for a typical bag and drag with the people involved so that if the mission was successful, the war would practically be in our hands. Anonymous would have no leaders, no government, and basically no system. A couple easy invasions later, and this war would be over. Obviously, the bag and tag operation was unsuccessful, and so here we are eighty five years later in the same predicament.

"There's no way that we could possibly call in an airstrike or invade in order to assault the compound, it's too far away from our front lines. However, we have a loophole, and it's all thanks to Anonymous relations with the Spanish government before the war actually started. One of the Spain's government leaders was informed of the attacks months before they actually happened thanks to him actually being part of the terrorist group. He passes a bill for catacombs under the entire country that could be used as a fallout shelter because of the cold war between the United States, the European Union, and China at the time, and boom. Anonymous has a way of moving troops around the country for immediate travel to different locations without us ever knowing. However, we found out about it only a couple years after the war started, and they shut down the operation. Many of the tunnels have flooded or caved in, but there are many still operational. And since we have the entrance of one of them in Barcelona that hasn't caved in, we have a direct approach into Madrid for you. That is, if you're in," General Walker explained, further convincing me that this speech was very much planned.

"What are my other options?" I asked, which I knew was a very stupid option in itself.

"Well, if you choose not to do this, you have the options of either execution or life in a military prison. I'm assuming that I already know what you want to do, yes?" she replied.

"So, the tunnels under Spain's cities," I said, changing the subject stupidly back to the apparent mission debriefing, and now briefing.

"Yes, you'll enter with four SEAL teams as backup from Barcelona. Radios still work down there, so we'll be able to guide you from above. Hopefully you're not afraid of the dark. Once you're out of the catacombs, it's only a short walk to the facility from there. There are trees all around it, so you'll take station in one of those. When the convoy arrives, wait for all of them to pass except for the last one, and board it to sneak into facility. Infiltrate the meeting, keep the leaders pinned down and your close surroundings clear of enemies, and call in the four SEAL teams. These guys in here are the leaders of them, and they have five guys in each group. So not only do you have twenty men's worth of backup, but we'll fly in an AC130 for you guys. It'll be easy as long as you don't get killed on your way in," General Walker explained, finally finishing the diagram that she had been drawing. She slid the sheet of paper over to me, and I stopped it from sliding off the table. It was a rough diagram of the facility, with the building in the center surrounded by a circle of open fields. There were forests surrounding that with just one checkpoint entrance to the east. It was very simple, although it would be hard to infiltrate with just one way in or out. Unless I learned to fly, which wasn't exactly likely.

"So I just call in the SEAL teams once I've got the Anonymous leaders pinned down?" I confirmed with General Walker, and she nodded.

"Sergeant Richter, are you sure you'll be able to go through with all of this? I don't know if you're quite ready myself, considering all of this Notch stuff going on inside your head," she continued, her face full of concern.

"I'm not afraid of going into battle. It's just a mental state of mind, after all," I assured her, standing from my wooden seat to begin prepping to go into action. "Now, can I have my guns back?"

General Walker sighed from her seat at the table. "Are you sure?"

The statement made me grin. "My only fear _is_ fear, after all."

The general rolled her eyes, turning back to the four SEAL team leaders. "Alright men, get suited up. This is going to be the biggest mission of your career."

**TPoM**

"Greyhound, are you set in position? Convoy is driving toward you right now, ETA thirty seconds," my radio sounded, a broadcast from the overhead AC130. It was hidden by the clouds that covered the sky in sheets of white, making it impossible for it to be detected by the Anonymous spotters. The ground itself was foggy and damp, with a heavy mist so that walking felt like you were moving through rain although nothing was actually falling from the sky.

"Affirmative, Hawk, I am set in position," I responded, and clicked the button on the radio again to cut my speaking. I rested on a tree branch about fifteen feet off of the ground in the heavy underbrush near the security checkpoint that led into the facility, where I had a view of the guarded entrance through the greenery. There were two armed guards, one that stood on my side of the road on the left, and another that stood in the middle. I already had it planned out; once all of the convoy had passed through except for the last one, I would jump down and take out the guard on my side of the road. Once the other guard checked out the vehicle to make sure it was clear, I would take him out and get in the back cabin of it. According to the intelligence we had received, the back vehicle's cabin was merely for supplies, so I would be safe in there.

The mission was codenamed Operation Doghouse, a reminder to how the facility had only one way in and one way out, and you were really picking a fight if you went into the enemy's doghouse. Unfortunately, that was exactly what I would be doing.

It was about three o' clock in the afternoon on the day after the meeting I had attended in Manchester, so it would have been hot out had it not been for the overcast sky. June 26th was supposed the be a very hot day for Spain, but instead it was in the low 70s and about to start a downpour at any second now. For the assignment, all radio transmissions would address me as Greyhound, Hawk was the AC130 high up in the sky, and the SEAL teams were nothing more than Squads Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta. At the moment, they were waiting two hundred yards out from my position, still in the trees just off of the road. All I had to do once I was in the room with the Anonymous leaders was just press a button on my radio and say "Hudson." I had chosen the code word to be that in memory of the soldier that had gone away from the camps in Sweden with me, whose body rested somewhere in the ruins of the church tower that had blown up during our mission to rescue the President's daughter.

The cars reached the security checkpoint right on time. The first two were armored trucks with cabins in the back which were filled with people. The third one held the executives in an armored limo. The last two cars were identical to the first two, but the last one held cargo instead of people. Ammunition, weapons, all kinds of stuff like that.

The guard that was checking the vehicles looked in the back first, and then to the front to wave in the driver of the car. There were about thirty seconds between the time that each car was permitted to enter the facility, the time that the guard was able to search the cars to make sure that nothing illegal was permitted to enter the facility. The guard on the side of the road was leaning against a tree a couple feet behind the car, smoking a cigarette with his gun leaning against his side. I took my Five Seven out from my pocket, a gun that would make the kills as quick and silent as a knife to the throat. That was too gory for me, though.

From my pocket I pulled out a silencer barrel and screwed it on to the end of the pistol. The attachment would reduce the muzzle flash of the weapon and make it as close to silent as a gun could possibly be. Next, I slipped down from my branch to the ground of the underbrush, with my pistol at my side. The limo was passing at this point, and the inspector guard had moved onto the second to last vehicle. At this point, I was only a couple of a feet behind the guard that was smoking on the side of the road, and I aimed down the iron sights of my Five Seven at the back of his head. As soon as the last car moved up to the line of the security checkpoint, I squeezed the trigger.

I had always had deadly accuracy, and this bullet hit the guard right in the back of the skull. I grabbed the back of his combat suit quickly and threw him back into the underbrush, and thankfully the other guard didn't notice. He was giving the thumbs up to the car's driver now, and I sprinted across the road out of his sights toward the back of the truck as it began to pull away. The guard saw me at the last second, and I fired three deadly bullets into his chest. At least one of them hit him in the chest, and he was knocked backward into the shallowest leaves. Unless you looked closely enough, both bodies were hidden in the leaves.

The bodies weren't my problem anymore anyways, and I scrambled into the cabin of the truck. The leather flaps that hid the inside were pushed away easily, and I sat down on a wooden box of ammunition. There were no windows into the driver's area, so I was perfectly safe for the moment. I took out the magazine that was in my Five Seven and reloaded it with a fresh one, just to be safe. I couldn't walk into a facility of enemies with just four bullets in my gun.

The armored car moved along with minimal bumping around, and I took out my radio from its holster on my belt. "I'm en route aboard the convoy now," I spoke into it, met by a reply of static.

"That's confirmed, Greyhound. Be aware, the convoy is pulling into the parking garage below the facility. Heavy security down there, you're going to have to improvise if you want to stay undetected. We're counting on you," Hawk voiced into me, and I debated. The easiest thing would be to take out the UMP45 that was strapped over my back and unleash hell, but that would end up having my targets scattered and possibly killed. What I had to do was disguise myself as an Anonymous guard somehow and get through the facility towards the meeting while keeping that persona. The only way to do that was to steal a uniform.

"Hawk, do you know where clothing supplies in the facility are?" I radioed in.

There was more static until I got my long awaited answer from the AC130 high above me. "Looks like you're in luck, Greyhound. There are fresh uniforms for guards being transported on the truck you're on right now. Try to get them on quickly," Hawk contacted me. I scoured the boxes until I found the one marked 'Uniforms'. I ripped off the wooden planks that were nailed to the top of the crate and picked up one of the suits. It was a combat uniform, standard Anonymous brand with black textiles and camouflage highlights in some corners.

The car dipped downward as it entered the parking garage under the facility, and whipped my UMP45 around so that it was in my hands. This way, I looked like an actual guard. Then, I replaced the wooden planks on top of the crate I had busted open the best I could. There was no way that I would be able to completely reattach it, but since it was near the back of the car's supplies, it would be awhile before the box was discovered to be vandalized.

The armored car stopped finally, and I pushed aside the leather flaps and hopped down to the pavement. The garage was filled with about thirty trucks identical to the one I had just ridden into the facility on. I began to feel a little bit uncomfortable, since I was completely surrounded by the enemy as they went on their patrols around the facility. If I was stopped and an expert tried to inspect my weapon, they would know that it was a model only the Resistance used, and I would be completely exposed.

I could see a group of about five armed guards surrounding the six executives that would be attending the meeting. The dressed like high ranking officials, that was true. The group of people made their way toward an elevator. I didn't want to appear to be scouting them or anything, so I continued on toward a series of stairs. The amount of people in the room was astronomical, and I had to weave my way in and out of the various workers in order to make my way towards the staircase. My Five Seven was once more hidden from sight in its holster, with the silencer barrel still screwed to the front of it.

The meeting was due to start in just about five minutes, so I took my time on the stairs. The stream of people on the stairs was minimal, not what I had expected at all. I clicked on the button on my radio while I was on an area of the stairs by myself and spoke to Hawk up in the sky. "Making alternative route to the meeting room other than the elevators as I speak. What floor is the meeting on again?" I whispered into it, as to not attract attention.

As I walked, I made sure that the safety of my UMP45 was on, and then I got an answer from Hawk. "Third floor, south side of the building. Remember to call in the SEALs when you're all set," the voice told me through heavy static. "Good luck, Greyhound."

At the top of the staircase was the ground floor, where more people bustled around as they made their ways to different assigned posts. I began walking toward the next staircase, which was on the south side of the building and would lead me just outside of the meeting. It was impossible to even hear myself think, as the many people talking about operations and things that needed to be carried out drowned out anything else my ears could register. I checked my watch once more. Two minutes until the meeting began.

Once I reached the bottom of the next staircase, I began my way up toward the third floor. This staircase was a spiral one that went through the floors, with the entrances to each floor open and showing views of corridors that led to armories, communication rooms, interrogation rooms, and meeting rooms. Finally, I reached the third floor, and I paused at the entrance to the corridor my objective was located in. My watch read 3:21, indicating the meeting had started one minute ago. The door was locked into the room, but there was another way to get in. Much like an interrogation room, the meeting was being watched and recorded from a window above the floor in another room, with one way glass. Maybe the glass was bulletproof, but I had come prepared for anything.

I went to the door to the left of the meeting and opened it, closing it quickly so that no one in the corridors knew of my presence. There were two guards in this room, and I whipped out my Five Seven and shot them both in the chests. The broadcast table had a blinking red light along with a television monitor that showed the Anonymous leaders in the room below me in the same view I could see through the darkened window. I flipped a switch to shut down the recording of the meeting, and I got out a small block of C4 from my pack of gear strapped to my back and fixed it against the bottom of the window. The switch to activate the explosive rested in my hand, and I clicked the button of my radio briefly. All that needed to be spoken was one word. "Hudson."

Quickly, my radio began sounding voices other than that of Hawk. The pilot of the AC130 had patched me through to the leaders of the SEAL squads and the Overlord operator of the Comm Center back in Manchester. "SEAL squads, you are cleared to commence your assault on target Doghouse, Greyhound awaiting arrival in the meeting room on floor three." There was much more to the chatter, and it seemed like all of the Resistance taking part in the operation were patched through to me. I took a deep breath and flicked the switch of the explosive button.

The darkened window in front of me shattered into pieces in a great fireball, and I vaulted over the bottom of the window and landed on my feet. The floor was littered with broken glass, and I held up my UMP45. "No one even _breathes_ unless I give you permission!" I shouted, flicking the sights of the submachine gun at all of them to show that I honestly did not care for their safety. The truth was that I didn't, after all, they were the leaders of the enemy.

There was no talking from the Anonymous leaders, and I kept the sights of my gun trained on them as I went over to the door of the room and locked it. Finally, a clear voice came through my radio in static. "Greyhound, proceeding with missile launch on coordinates Three Romeo Seven Two Nine. Are you secure in target room safely?" Hawk radioed through.

"You're clear, Hawk. Locking down, send in the missiles and then the SEAL teams."

"Roger that," my radio buzzed, and then cut off the static it had been making. I crouched down against the wall, with all of the Anonymous leaders sitting in their chairs around the table. I didn't know any of them, we hadn't had time for me to prep that, but there were six of them. I did know that there had to be that many. But they better have been sitting down. It was about to get a little bit bumpy.

An explosion rocked the building from far away, shaking the chairs and causing the shattered glass on the ground to rattle. "Jesus Christ!" one of the Anonymous men exclaimed, resting his head against the table to try and limit the noise in his head. Alarms went off around the building, and we could hear them from outside the door. Over the course of a minute, three more explosions rattled the structure. For all I knew, it was old enough to come down at any second with all of the pressure that we were putting on it.

There were no footsteps from outside our room now, just alarms faintly in the distance. The systems must have been destroyed, so only a couple of them around the building were actually alerting Anonymous of the pending attack. The men inside the room with me were silent, all debating what they could possibly do to try and save themselves. The truth was, as long as I was in the room with them, there was no way out.

I stood again, stretching my legs. My combat boots crunched against the broken glass on the floor with every step, creating a sound that made the room eerily not quiet anymore. "Greyhound, this is SEAL Team Alpha Captain Harper speaking, we are advancing into the parking garage right now. We'll reach your position at some point in the next five minutes. Just hold on, there's limited resistance from Anonymous in the building because of the AC130 airstrike," my radio spoke.

"That's confirmed, I'm locked down with the Anonymous leaders in the target room. Awaiting your arrival. Try to make it quick, though, I don't like sitting in the middle of a fight with minimum defense available," I replied, lifting my thumb from the button of the radio and turning back to the group. The six people attending the meeting were the men in charge of every part of Anonymous' life; the Resource director, the Food director, the Weaponry director, the Civilization director, the Military director, and the Pres. If one of them wasn't here and was being substituted by an assistant or something because they couldn't make it to the meeting, then the war would push on. If that was the case, we were screwed.

Once again, sound ceased to be nothing except for the blaring alarms throughout the facility, and with nothing else to do, I leaned against the wall in my Anonymous uniform. It felt weird to be in this suit, so I began to take off the extra clothing until I was in my standard Resistance combat suit. I felt more natural that way, and I threw aside the disguise I had been using like it was just a piece of garbage. Then again, that was all it was when it came to if I cared at this point or not.

The first gunshot that was audible to me came around three minutes after Captain Harper had contacted me, a burst of automatic bullets down the corridor outside. I readied my UMP45 in case one of the Anonymous survivors tried to use the meeting room that I was camping out in as some sort of cover from the SEAL teams that were making their way through the facility to aid me. It wasn't a matter of fear, just self-protection. I wasn't afraid, of course not. After all, what I had said to General Walker had been true; my only fear was that fear itself would somehow find a way to creep under my skin, because that would render me helpless.

The gunshots grew increasingly closer until they ceased completely. There were footsteps directly outside of the door, and it sounded like quite a few pairs of feet. My radio buzzed in once more from my belt attached to my waist. I lifted it off of the leather to hear the next message. "Greyhound, this is Captain Harper speaking once more, three of the SEAL teams are waiting outside the target room, hold your fire to incoming soldiers."

I clicked the button again. "Roger that, Captain Harper, you are clear to move into the target room, I have it locked down with all HVIs unharmed."

There was some shouting from outside the door, and it busted open in front of me all of a sudden. It appeared that the man in front, a man with a radio clipped to his belt, had actually kicked down the metal door with surprising strength. "Secure the High Value Individuals, we're moving out as soon as we have control of each and every one of them," he ordered his troops, who filtered in around him with SEAL uniforms on and circled the conference table in the middle of the room to secure the area. The man who had commanded the group stepped up to me. "Good to see that you're still alive, Greyhound."

"Captain Harper?" I questioned, and he nodded faintly. I gripped his palm in a firm handshake, and I proceeded with my questions. "Where is the other SEAL team if they aren't up here with us?"

"They've secured the combat cars down in the parking garage which will be used for our own exfiltration. Team Delta is guarding the four trucks they captured as we speak," he informed me, lifting his own gun up from its leather strap that held it around his shoulder.

It didn't take longer than a minute for the highly skilled SEAL operatives to handcuff all of the Anonymous leaders and get them standing with gun barrel pressing against the smalls of their backs. "Alright then, let's move down to the parking garage. The sooner we get out of this hellhole, the better," Captain Harper shouted, and six of the SEAL squad members began to lead the Anonymous leaders out of the room. The ten others in the group, including me, took various position surrounding the human convoy as we began our way down the hallway.

Our footsteps echoed along the dark hallways, the only lights that remained on amid the missile strikes constantly flickering. There were smile sparks of fire that crackled on various spots of the walls, and I led the way with Captain Harper at my side at point. I heard a gunshot in the distance, far away from any of us. The group halted, but it apparently hadn't been directed at us. So instead, we resumed at our pace until we reached the stairway that the SEAL teams had already cleared at the opposite end of the corridor from which I had come through.

The staircase was cracked, with various sparks of fire much like those that we had seen up on the third floor corridor walls. This staircase led all the way down to the parking garage, and I led the way as we crossed the pavement toward Team Delta across the aisle by the four armored cars. Once we reached them, we had the Anonymous leaders board them with Resistance militants guarding each of them to make sure that they didn't try anything.

"Hawk, we are prepared to begin our exfiltration from the parking garage," I spoke into my radio as I boarded the passenger seat in the front of one of the armored cars as Captain Harper sat in the driver's seat. Harper started the engine, causing the machine to begin to rumble as the pistons began to turn.

"Greyhound, you are all clear for evacuation, I'll light up the building as soon as you're clear of the area. Minimum casualties throughout the operation, I hope?"

"Absolutely none, except for cuts and bruises. We're leaving right now."

The convoy of four armored cars began their way out of the parking garage past debris. I kept my UMP45 loaded just in case we ran into any patrols that had survived along the path out of the facility. But as we broke into the sunlight, there appeared to be none. As soon as our convoy got out of minimum range of the facility, a got a message on my radio. "Lighting them up in three, two, one…"

I stuck my head out the window, and past the other cars in the convoy behind ours, I say a heavy rain of missiles and bullets penetrate the clouds that hung over the facility and crash into the building. Fire leapt up from the already damaged building, and I began laughing. It got to the point where I shouted in happiness. Because according to our plan, what we had just done should have hands down ended the entire war, the one that had now lasted over two hundred years. It was unbelievable how wrong I could have possibly been.

**And so concludes the Earth story arc in TPoM, which will end up being revisited in the epilogue. But for all of you that don't like these, Merry Christmas! And to exb756, there might not have been many explosions, but there were very powerful words. So hopefully that was a grand exit for Sergeant Richter.**

** How was Sergeant Richter wrong? How will the Imperial Battalion find the way to the End using the Eyes of Ender? And how will the story finally conclude? We're nearing the end now, so find all of your answers next time, only in the Prophecy of Minecraftia!**


	37. Stronghold

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** Since I don't want to interrupt you from reading this chapter, I'll make it short and sweet. But basically, I tried to update this chapter super-fast because the next three chapters will be released as one. Yeah, 38, 39, and 40 will all be released together. Hopefully it they'll come out the week of Christmas, because I'll be going on vacation the week afterwards. But because it'll be a week or two, don't be alarmed.**

** All right then, let the story commence!**

**Chapter 37**

**Stronghold**

A single strand of hair stuck out from under my brand new diamond helmet. My dark red shirt clung to my body as if it didn't want to come off, my jeans tight with the exact same effect. Now that I examined myself, I looked exactly like the picture that had been in the basement of my new house. The unnerving feelings returned, considering that the picture I had seen depicted me to be completely surrounded by Endermen with no way out.

Fine then, I thought. I'll just have to deal with all of this prophecy stuff, even if I become scared of it or something. There was no way that we could possibly avoid any of this, after all, so the only way out of our situation was to deal with the Raid of the Endermen, to find a way to somehow destroy the Enderdragon.

What really pissed me off, though, was that none of this had to happen. But of course, somehow, Notch had created this mess and lied to us all that there was nothing like the Endermen that even existed. Maybe if we had known about the threat of the Endermen in the first place, the government officials all across the world would have found a way to somehow protect the people. There had to be some kind of response action. The only reason that all of the cities had fallen was because they had no chance of raising a finger against the Endermen without knowing of their plans. If Notch had even told the city leaders, then they would have found some way to prepare us, the Royal Guardsmen could fight, the Fortifiers to take their skills one step higher. There had to have been a way.

But the truth was in my head, that all of this was meant to happen some way or another. If the city leaders had evacuated the people, the Endermen would have found. If they set up defenses as an extra safety measure, they would have found a way through them. No matter what we could have done, the cities had to fall in order to let me serve my purpose. Because that was all we were to Notch, people who served a purpose. No, our opinions didn't matter, and certainly what we said and did was to be for the best. It didn't matter if we were against Notch's will, what he said went. And every second I thought of the truth, the more the rage boiled up in side of me, red hot and dangerously close to spilling over the top.

Here I am, Notch! Standing here, about to lead eleven people, most of them close friends, right into a hellhole where we will surely meet our deaths! So thanks a lot, any last remarks you need to give out? Creepers were are friends all along? There are diamonds growing from trees? Didn't think so…

I didn't notice I was actually shaking until Prae tapped me on the shoulder, bringing me back to reality. A pressed my right palm to my face. This was too much, I didn't deserve this burden. And yet, Prae insisted on speaking. "Alex, should we try and see what the Eyes of Ender do, because we're not going anywhere unless we at least know that," she queried softly. Her voice was soothing, almost like my rage had been covered in thousands of cubes of ice.

Back in as sane of a state that I could be at the moment, I reached down to my toolbelt to take out one of the Eyes of Ender. The color of it mystified me still, always tumbling around within the sphere outline as if it were really a spirit or something inside of it. The group closed in on me, waiting to see what I could uncover from the item. The new members, Vanessa, Matthew, and Nicole, all came closest to me as they had never seen it, as did Khalida and Adam.

"The Eye of Ender," breathed Khalida, speaking as usual in her dreamy voice of sorts. "The key to finding the lair of the Enderdragon. But how exactly to unlock its secrets, that is quite the question for us to be tasked with."

"What exactly is that thing? It's so creepy, it freaks me out," Nicole commented, examining it closely. The black eye stared up at us, unmoving as the small orange specks drifted throughout it with the teal substance. I held it in two hands, watching it closely, trying to see if it would give anything away to make our conquest easier.

"The Eye of Ender," I whispered, for some reason unable to speak at a normal volume. "What exactly are we supposed to do with this thing?"

Matthew cracked a smile at this comment. "I figured that you would be the one who knew that!" he joked, shaking his head in dismay. "If it doesn't work, we're screwed."

I began shaking. It must have been more anger inside of me, bitter hatred at Notch, at the Endermen, and now at this Eye of Ender for not working when it was supposed to. "I don't understand!" I spoke through gritted teeth. "Why won't work? It's time!"

The last two words I had yelled, and suddenly, I realized that it wasn't me that was shaking, but rather, the Eye of Ender I was holding in my hand. The patterns inside of it began to swirl faster and faster, and suddenly, it sprang out of my hands and floated in midair. It twirled around, about a foot higher than the crest of my head, seeming to take a survey of who we were and what exactly it was getting into. No, that was what it would do if it had a personality or something. After all, there was no way that this thing could. Right?

It stayed there for about fifteen seconds, and finally moved in closer to me. It was resting just in front of my face, staring into my eyes as if it were actually a person looking at me. Suspense filled the air, and I tried to take a step backward from it. My feet were locked in position though, something about me being afraid of this supernatural occurrence. And when I had begun to think that this was all, I heard a word in my head. Well, I didn't quite hear it, but much like how the Enderdragon had communicated in me in my dreams, the word was just broadcasted inside of my head. _Follow._

"Follow," I repeated out loud, and the others looked at me oddly. "It just communicated with me somehow. Like, it just told me 'follow'."

"You know what I think? I think that you're just crazy," Adam commented, earning him a punch in the gut from me. "What the hell was that for, you jerk?"

"Shut it right now," I muttered, and the Eye of Ender floated upward. _Follow._ And suddenly, it began floating down the street toward the exit of the city to the east, away from the ocean. "AH! Follow it!"

The group hurried down the road, but once we were actually walking under the Eye of Ender as it floated about three feet above us, I noticed that it really hadn't been going that fast. In fact, we were keeping up with the floating entity at just a walking pace. Soon enough, the orb had led us out of the city limits of Novum Eboracum and into the plains that we had traversed on while on our way to this location. I took one last glance back at the city. The streets, the buildings, the lighthouse with the block of glowstone all would shine brightly in my memory. I hoped that this would be the last time I got to see them.

It was four o' clock in the afternoon when we reached the expansive forest just outside of the city. The Eye of Ender, which I presumed would just lead us right to the doorstep of wherever the Enderdragon was located, weaved in and out of the various trees. The shadows of the trees danced along the ground, mystifyingly changing the brightness levels of the world around us every couple seconds. Now that the Eye of Ender was leading the way without me having to actually hold it in my hand, I took out Monarch in case there was trouble along the way. Knowing my luck and history, that factor was practically guaranteed.

"So what was the idea you had to try and minimize the fighting within the group?" Aria asked me in a hushed voice so that the others wouldn't hear. It might be implying that she was unsatisfied with the current arrangements if she actually said anything out loud.

There was no better time than now to try and introduce the group to the idea. "Everyone, you know how I said I had an idea to stop the, um, tension inside the Imperial Battalion back before the town meeting?" I announced, and was met with nods and calls of yes. "Well, the idea was that we should split into three or four small groups with the people fighting with one another separated a little bit. That way, the squads will be accounting for their own members to try and keep up a certain level of organization and take some of the burden off me. What do you guys think of that?"

The group threw around the idea within their heads, trying to decide if it was plausible or not to actually split the Imperial Battalion up into smaller pieces. "I think it might help when we're trying to accomplish a couple of different tasks at once," commented Mike. "Like, if one squad was trying to protect another while they were accomplishing a task from the Endermen."

"I think it's a good idea, overall, considering that it would mean I could finally get away from Loopy for a while," Adam snorted, twirling an arrow between his hands with expert skill, like a drummer in a rock band. "But I don't mean to be negative…"

"Oh yeah, hardly," Skyler rolled his eyes, obviously still ticked off about something, but I wasn't exactly sure what. "I'll agree to the idea as long as it is four groups of three. I think there would still be some conflict among three groups."

"Fine then. I'm in Mike's group, then. I don't want to stray off from my friends, either," Clara protested, still close to the only person in the Imperial Battalion she had known before the situation that had sprung upon us all. There were clearly more loyalties and rivalries within the group than I had thought there to be.

"Yeah, yeah. OK, so I'm in a group with Prae, Mike and Clara are together, is there anyone else who wants to stick together?" I said over everyone else, establishing a kind of base for the entire setup. The others debated a little within their groups.

"I wouldn't mind staying with Remington, actually," Matthew spoke up, shrugging a little awkwardly. "I mean, I know that the situation we're in isn't quite the best for being funny or something, but the two of us would do well together to supply us with some comedy relief. I mean, we practically make a sort of dynamic duo."

"And Skyler and I, too," Aria replied, flashing me a look that kind of said 'I'll keep an eye on him for you'. "It would best if we stuck together, I think." I glanced at Skyler to see his reaction to Aria's proposal. There was nothing more to his face than a clever smirk.

"So Adam, Khalida, Vanessa, and Nicole all need a spot, and there's one open in each group. Where do you guys want to land?" I continued, and the four of them thought a little.

"I'll stick with Alex," Khalida shrugged, walking over to Prae and I. "Honestly, he's my only real friend here since Jessica is gone." The last words were said kind of roughly, and were met by teary eyes from Prae next to me. Maybe it wasn't smart to bring that up, Khalida, I thought to myself as she walked at my side.

Nicole was the next person to choose her group. "I want to stay with Matthew, since I know him from before, I suppose," she grinned, walking over to Matthew and Remington.

Vanessa eyed me a little bit, and I got the same kind of feeling inside of my stomach that I had gotten when I first saw her at the town meeting. The look in her eyes was something along the lines of regret that she couldn't be with me. I stared back at me, but clasped my hand in Prae's at the same time to try and fight off the feeling. She was flirting with me or something, I was sure of it, and I didn't like it. Well, maybe a little. "I guess I'll go with Skyler and Aria," she sighed, continuing to walk directly under the Eye of Ender instead of joining her group.

"And that leaves Adam to be with Clara and Mike," I announced, letting the groups form up into each other as we traversed through the thick forest. "It was nice knowing you two."

After that, there was very little official business covered in speech by the group, but more just a chatter as the three new recruits learned where everyone was from as we each told our own story of survival and how we had reached Novum Eboracum to become part of the Imperial Battalion. I wasn't really listening, though, and instead kept my eyes trained on the Eye of Ender as it ducked and weaved through the leaves of the trees.

My diamond armor stayed in my toolbelt, as I didn't want to have to be wearing it right now. It seemed a little too flashy for my taste to be wearing diamond armor among people who definitely didn't have any of it. I did continue to wear the helmet, though, just to signify I was some leader or something. It could've been confusing to a bystander on who actually was the leader between me and Remington, since he was decked out in completely iron armor with a golden helmet tight against his hair. I remembered briefly that that helmet had actually been from a Zombie Pigman that I had killed back in Fort Imperial just before they had arrived.

Since I wasn't really listening to the conversation, it surprised me into lifting my sword threateningly when I heard my name. This time, I actually listened, not wanting to be startled by the others again. "Alex, what about your story?" Vanessa queried, brushing strands of hair out of her eyes as she stared at me. I realized it wasn't just her, but everyone.

The thought made me uncomfortable. It wasn't actually one of my favorite things in the world to broadcast information about myself to others, even if it was people that I knew. It just felt a little bit uncomfortable to be telling long, elaborate stories about myself. "Well, as you probably know by now, I'm from Imperial Plains. And according to the prophecy that we're supposed to be part of, the night that a man gets the last name Glowstone for the first time in history, somehow by some amazing string of luck, or more likely destiny, the city will get attacked by the Endermen and fall. So you can blame me for all of that destruction.

"So I escaped from the city with two Royal Guardsmen named Frank and Natalie, much to the credit of people like Nicole, and started out on an adventure. And pretty much as soon as we set up shop on top of a mountain the two of them died in an attack from the mobs under the Endermen's control. I would've died too, if it hadn't been for Prae here," I began, kicking a small rock that was propped up on the green grass.

"The two of us reached Magnam Civitatem, where I found the Prophecy of Minecraftia for myself and met Prae's childhood friend, Jessica. Unfortunately, most of you probably know her by now and how she died in the Nether. Well, the two of us made our way across the land through Mt. Wolfpack with the people here, and then established Novum Eboracum. And now I'm here, and my time is about to come," I explained, shaking my head in disgust. For the millionth time, I asked myself why all of this had to happen to me, of all people.

The last remark was met by silence from the group. I continued walking at the front of the Imperial Battalion, never focusing my sight on anything other than the Eye of Ender as it flew above us through the branches. I knew that the way I had said it was bitter and saddening, but then again, it was true. I was just a pawn in Notch's game, trying to save the world from some monster that he had created. And no one except for Prae and I actually knew the severity of the conflict, that this was just some adventure we had to take. Almost like, for lack of a better word, a war that we were fighting for the people, or some crusade. My time was about to come, and it was from nothing that actually made sense.

There was nothing to be done about my sadness. After all, the reason that I was down was because I would most likely meet my death in the coming hours, and how was I supposed to feel better if that was the scenario I was facing? I just focused on following the small sphere that floated above us, guiding us toward our very own judgment day.

As we headed east, we finally broke through the trees to reach a large tundra. It stretched on as far as I could see in every direction except for the west, which was where we had come from. I could feel my fingers freezing into locked positions in the cold weather. Snow covered the grass, but we wouldn't have been able to dig out the dirt anyways; in this frozen biome, the dirt became so compact that it turned into permafrost.

When I thought the cold couldn't get any worse, I saw the moon slowly rising up over the short hills in the distance. The sky behind us was becoming a dark orange. Night was coming, and that would make the cold temperature intensify to the point of no return. We would have to adapt to this cold weather for as long as we had to keep following the Eye of Ender through the wilderness that surrounded us. Which, as I soon found out, was not that long.

It seemed that as soon as the sun sunk under the trees in the distance to the west, the Eye of Ender stopped. It was dark now, with the moonlight reflecting off the glistening white to give us a rough peripheral vision. But that was exactly the problem; the Eye of Ender had just stopped in midair after a couple of hours of guiding us at an even pace. It stared down at me, and I waited for its next message or something, if it even had one.

"So what, does it not work at night or something?" Mike questioned, "Because if it doesn't, I am sure as hell not going to sleep in the frozen wasteland."

"No, I don't think that that is quite it," murmured Nicole from behind me. I stepped forward from the rest of the group, standing directly under the item as it floated. And finally, another message was broadcasted. _Here. Down._

And with that, the Eye of Ender lost its energy or something of the sort and fell limply to the permafrost ground. Or at least, we thought it had been permafrost. But as it made impact and contacted the ground, there was a high pitched ping instead of a thud from hitting a hard dirt surface. The noise was no fluke; we were standing on iron blocks.

"What the hell was that?" exclaimed Matthew, who obviously had put two and two together just like me. "We're in the middle of a tundra, so why did it sound like metal?"

"Did the Eye of Ender communicate with you again?" Prae asked, stepping up to my side as I bent down to pick the item back up off the snowy ground. The object was just as freezing as the air, and I quickly replaced it in my toolbelt. Once I stood, I turned to face her and the others.

"Yeah, it did," I nodded, my voice dreamy with awe. How could there possibly be iron blocks here of all places. I bent down once more, swiping away at the snow with my bare hand. That was a bad idea, and the red color in my hands intensified. I jerked my arms backward, shocked at the cold fire that I seemed to be holding. "Dig up the snow around here. I want to see exactly what it is hiding."

I took out my iron shovel, as did the others, and we all worked together to carve away the compact snow. It was only a few inches deep, and my spade soon made a ping against the surface of the same material. The others had the same thing happened to them, and I polished away the frost that had stuck to the cold iron. The surface area of the iron platform was just five blocks by five blocks, though it was just as significant as if it had spanned the entire biome, but there were still limits to where the permafrost began.

"What exactly do you think it is? I mean, this isn't exactly something that you see every day, is it? Unless you guys see iron in the middle of a tundra on the surface on a regular basis, because then it's perfectly normal and it has happened to me, too," Khalida rambled.

"Well, it obviously has something to do with Endermen. Maybe it is some kind of portal made of iron," suggested Vanessa, freezing in her short sleeved shirt. Now that I looked around, most of us were wearing that kind of clothing, so it wasn't just me who was freezing to death. So why had I only noticed it when I had glanced at Vanessa?

"What exactly did the Eye of Ender, um, say to you, Alex?" queried Clara.

I looked across the surface of the iron, looking for anything on top of it that might have been of interest. "It told me 'here', which I guess indicated that this was what we were looking for. So maybe this iron is some key to unlocking where the Enderdragon, a means of releasing it into the tundra that we stand in right now. But I don't think that's it, because it also told me 'down', which I'm guessing has to do with a direction we have to go in order to find the key or something," I shrugged, still feeling the icy steel for a button or something like that.

"No dip it has something to do with a direction. What else would 'down' be referring to, your mood?" Skyler scolded me bitterly. I flashed a glare in his direction, still trying to figure out why he was so mad or whatever these days.

"Maybe, sire, the Eye was telling us to proceed down into the depths of the ground because the iron is a roof for the Enderdragon's lair or something," Remington suggested, scratching his head confusedly as he tried to put two and two together. That was all we could try to do with this puzzle, it seemed. And finally, my fingers clicked down on the iron button I had been looking for, and the block I was standing on gave way.

"Son of a bitch!" I exclaimed as gravity took over, and I plummeted down into the hole that it had opened up in the ground. Luckily, a couple blocks down from the surface, my hands found a round handhold; a ladder built into the wall. The air that I had been pushing aside with my fall suddenly shot up past me as I hung by one hand. My right hand was free, and I searched my toolbelt for torches. I found them on my left hip, and took one out in front of me.

The chasm was only one block wide on each dimension, except for the one that I had slipped through that probably lasted a hundred blocks or so. Well, that was an exaggeration, but thank Notch I had grabbed onto a handhold when I did. I shook my head in disgust, why was I thanking Notch if he was the one who had caused all of this hell to happen to me? Instead, I focused on my surroundings. The walls were stone brick, but they looked old and weathered in some places. In some small spots, they were even cracked, which I had never thought a stone brick ever to have so little resistance that it cracked apart.

"Alex!" I heard someone call from above the entrance to the cave. "I see a light, are you OK down there?" After a few seconds I recognized the voice to be Prae's.

I struggled to find a better footing on the ladder. "Yeah, I'm fine. Have everyone make their way down, I think that this is the next step to whatever we're looking for."

The small box of moonlight was blocked as someone began climbing down the ladder, and with my torch in hand, I continued to make my way down as well. Rung by rung, I struggled to keep my torch away from burning my face as I slowly inched my way down the chasm. Even though it produced a much needed light, I still didn't want to get the flickering flames directly in my face. That would hurt pretty, pretty badly.

After a few more minutes of climbing my way down the wooden ladder, my foot hit the ground. It was stone brick, just like the walls that had carried me down to whatever was hidden in this underground tunnel. Keeping my torch in hand, I walked a little bit to see if the walls changed a little bit. There were torches spread through the tunnel, but they seemed to be set up at completely random intervals. It would be very easy to get lost, wherever this was. Assuming that it was safe enough, I replaced the torch back in my toolbelt.

Prae was the first of the others to make it to the base of the ladder, her eyes adjusting to the increase of light. "What do you think all of this means? Is the Enderdragon down here or something?" she asked me while the others were out of the room.

I shook my head in disagreement. "I'm pretty sure that it isn't down in these tunnel networks. From the dreams that I had about it, it seemed a little too big to fit in these corridors," I countered her theory, pacing as we waited for the others. "And I think it'll be a little bit safer to abandon the squad idea while we're down here. It seems like the perfect place to lose your friends forever if you split up, and I would prefer if that didn't happen."

All Prae had to give me after the comment was a small giggle, but that was honestly all I really needed to know she was OK. She inched closer to me, and I eventually took her under my arm as she cradled underneath my shoulder. It felt kind of weird to be holding someone who was actually a year older than me like this, but cares, right?

Remington's shoes came into view on the railing and we detached from each other, such a state not exactly suitable for public view. It wasn't like that was inappropriate or something, it just felt a little bit misguided, or awkward. However you want to put it.

Once the rest of the Imperial Battalion was waiting here with us, we prepped to move forward. The cave was damp and gloomy, almost radiating bad feelings. I felt that if I were stuck in this place for my life, I would just rot to death out of unhappiness. And the thought got under my skin, and I was once again afraid of the coming events.

"I wonder why it is so far underground," mused Matthew, stroking his chin as he thought about the prospects of our travel. "It must be some kind of stronghold or something of the like."

"I just hope that there are no Endermen," muttered Adam worriedly, and I glanced at the man who presumably hated everyone and everything about the world. But at this moment, he looked surprisingly uncomfortable, trembling and curling his lip out of stress. I felt much the same way on the inside, but I couldn't show that to the group around me; as I leader, I felt it to be my responsibility to be strong, even in the darkest of times.

There was no responsibility I hated more than that one.

We reached an intersection, and I watched the middle of the crossroads in awe. There was an elegant fountain made of stone, but it was parched dry and looked like it could crumble into dust at the slightest touch. The thing must have been so close to falling apart, and yet it stood tall in the middle of the room with a quiet dignity.

The group turned right from there and entered another room; one full of bookcases completely stocked with old editions of books. Khalida rushed over to one of the bookshelves that was lit by a torch and looked over them, but twisted her face up oddly. "I don't recognize any of these volumes, and I don't know any of these others, either," she commented.

I walked over to the bookshelf and picked up two books at random and held them up for myself to see. The first book was called 'Oliver Twist' by Charles Dickens, and the other was named 'Tom Sawyer' by Mark Twain. I didn't remember either book or author from the schools back in Imperial Plains, and I had been pretty well-read for a fourteen year old. "How peculiar," I muttered, sliding the hardcover volumes back into the shelves.

"When you guys are done reading, I'll get back to work," Adam rolled his eyes, leaning against the stone brick wall. But something even more odd than the books happened. As his head made contact with the surface of the wall, the individual block seemed to uncurl and shrink itself, and I saw a small grey shape skitter out down the wall and past us. Adam fell over in surprise with the wall not being there, landing on his butt hardly. Massaging his head, which had hit the small ridge, he exclaimed, "What the-?"

The small gray shape came back up to us, scuttling on the ground. It was going a lot slower than it had before, but it seemed to be some special kind of mob that had actually disguised itself as a block. How clever, I thought, watching it sit down and rest under some cobwebs in the corner of a bookshelf. Skyler's eyes narrowed as he stared at the strange creature. "I don't like that thing," he muttered, and jabbed it with his iron sword.

Although the small mob in front of us died, Skyler's action had actually done us a lot worse. All of a sudden, blocks just like the one that Adam had found began popping into the small creatures, gray with small prickles on them. One of the girls shrieked out loud, and I admit that it was pretty frightening myself. "Try not to kill them, it looks like whenever one dies, more of them spawn out of the walls!" Mike exclaimed, hopping up and down.

"OK, let's just get out of the library and try and go from there," Aria suggested, but the small creatures wouldn't let us go. And then they started to bite at our legs. The small teeth wouldn't have hurt if it had been just one on my ankle, but there were four of them clinging to my jeans per leg. "I don't think that's going to work!" I yelled in surprise.

"Never fear, everybody! There's a potion for everything," Khalida laughed, mindlessly happy as if there weren't tiny hostile mobs tearing away at her flesh at the moment. No, she just took out a small potion bottle full of a dark red fluid and just threw it at the ground harshly. The glass shattered on the ground, and the shards pierced the small mobs. Although the glass shards were very small, the proportion to the creatures was about the same as if I had gotten stabbed in the face by a knife. But it wasn't the glass that really hurt them, but rather the potion. It spread everywhere in a dark red fog, and it instantly killed all of the creatures and made me feel… better. In fact, the small cuts and scratches on my ankles were gone.

"And that is why Potions of Healing are so valuable," Khalida explained, twirling a strand of hair that was in fact mostly small beads that twisted up her hair. "Kill the bad guys, heal the good guys. And it all works just like that." She snapped her fingers for emphasis.

Adam rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Good one, Loopy. Seems like you're actually good for something." He frowned. "For once."

I led the way out of the library room to another corridor, which led us to two iron doors. There was something inside of these doors, I knew we had to have it. I took out my diamond pickaxe. "Can you guys feel it?" I exclaimed aloud, now excited at my discovery. "Whatever it is we're looking for, it is in here." And with that, I brought down the diamond pickaxe on the iron doors until there was nothing left of them and entered the room.

It was large, and in the middle was a small platform completely surrounded by stone stairs. I made my way up it to the top and looked at the marvel of architecture. There were odd beige and green blocks that line around a large hole, in the platform, and about three blocks into the hole was a pool of lava. The blocks around it aligned so that the twelve of them made a box around the small pit. And I realized that there was a reason that there were twelve.

I picked out my Eyes of Ender from my inventory, and standing next to one of the blocks, I fit the Eye of Ender into the slot. It fit perfectly, with the black pupil staring blankly at the ceiling. I proceeded to fit the rest of the items in the other blocks, and finally I put the last one in. A flickering black orb appeared above the pool of lava, casting a strange glow upon us all. We stared, mouths open and completely astonished. This was nothing like we had ever seen before. I was among those in complete awe.

After a couple seconds, the orb flattened out so that it spread from all the corners to the center, and it formed what looked like a perfect drawing of the night sky, with stars and everything, except it was actually moving. It was a portal. It was clear that everyone else knew that, two, because those of us not wearing our armor (which meant everyone except for Remington) suited up. The diamond armor I had acquired was surprisingly light, and it made me feel agile to be in it. I also knew that it was the strongest armor of all. There would be no mercy in the fight.

Unspeaking, I stepped up to the edge of the portal. It did look like the night sky, the same sky that I had slept under as a child. The same sky that I had found Prae under. The same sky that Imperial Plains and Magnam Civitatem had gone up in flames under. The same sky that Novum Eboracum had been built up from the ground under. And the same sky that rested as I stood, high above us, through the stone above this stronghold and cast it's pale moonlight on the tundra. And I began to feel anxious.

Maybe Notch had created the Enderdragon as some sort of beast, some experiment that had broken loose in his greater experiment, Minecraftia itself. Maybe everything I believed in, the entire world around me, was one great, big, fat lie. But it was still worth saving, because I loved it. I loved the joy in hanging out with other people. I loved the adventure of the wild, the trees, the ores, the oceans. Maybe I even loved the thrill of slaying a creeper, no matter how dangerous it may be or come to be. I loved the world I had been brought up to believe in, and if that was all I knew, than what was the point of abandoning it for the so called Earth?

It was right, it was just, and it was in my heart as the only thing I could do to bring peace and honor to Minecraftia once more. And with my last remarks, my last prayers to Notch that I survived, even if I didn't trust him, I let myself fall into the black void of a portal.

The clock had been ticking for weeks now. The bell has tolled midnight.

I am prepared to die.


	38. Sudden Death

** Hello once more, faithful readers!**

** I suppose that now is the time to say happy holidays, as it is Christmas Eve right now and a bunch of other stuff is going on. And although the story is now complete, there is still an epilogue to write. That won't be posted for a bit because I leave on vacation on Wednesday, but it will be there, I promise.**

** Now that I have a month to begin writing the sequel to The Prophecy of Minecraftia, I'm trying to decide on a side project that will also help me pass the time. I'm thinking between a couple things: a CoD Zombies Fanfic, or an Assassin's Creed Fanfic. Right now I'm leaning toward the former, but I want to hear the public opinion because I have splendid ideas for both of them. I'll put a poll for it on my author page, so check it out as soon as you're done reading this. After TPoM II is complete, I'll work on the other one and a side story to The Miner's Destiny that I've been granted permission to write. But for now, here are the last three chapters to TPoM II itself. So let the story commence!**

**Chapter 38**

**Sudden Death**

The tingling that I have felt a number of times before when going through portals seems routine for me, with my entire vision becoming a black veil with white stars in it, just like the night sky. I began to feel a little bit dizzy as the world seemed to spin around me. Even though I could still see and had a sense of gravity, I was standing on absolutely nothing; instead, I was just floating through a black void as I got transported to the End.

And just as sudden as the weightlessness had started, my feet touched ground. The force of the impact caused me to fall to one knee, and I had to steady myself before I got back up. I was in a small room, five blocks wide and long, but just three blocks tall. I only had to lift my arm up above my head a couple inches to brush my fingers against the rocky surface. It was that greenish white stone again, the one I had seen in that weird room while I was going through the Nether portal for the first time when the code got altered by the Endermen. Code, now that I understood the truth, must have been some build of the world, some way of altering creation.

I pinched my arm to make sure that I was actually awake. If I had been trapped in a room like this before within my subconscious or whatever, I certainly didn't want that to happen to me for a second time. Most of my arms were covered by the diamond armor, but from my elbow down there was exposed skin. It didn't matter, I figured. That area was easy enough to defend, as long as you were using the right weapon. But I couldn't be dreaming, because I could feel the pinch well enough and I didn't wake up. I was already awake.

To confirm that I was alright, Prae, materialized next to me in the small room, seeming to be built out of small shards of light that came together in about two seconds to make the outline of her. It colored and filled itself in, but at least that was how it looked to me, like she was being generated. To the person actually being transported, it just felt like your feet hit solid ground after falling a while. After all, I had been through the experience just seconds before.

"Glad to see you're here and I'm not dreaming that I'm back in this room," I greeted her, embracing quickly and then turning back to examining the walls. "This is practically the exact same room I was in when I got sidetracked when we visited the Nether for the first time."

Prae looked alarmed at this fact. "That can't necessarily be a good thing, though," she commented, her face full of fresh worry. Now that I thought of it, those Endermen that had captured me within my mind could be here, just like they had been before. Well, I knew that was impossible, because one of them had been Xerox, whom I had killed at sea on our way to the Temple of the Overworld. It was a done deal, but there was still the possibility of a similar situation that we could be stuck in as I thought about the prospect.

"I guess you're right about that," I shrugged, leaning against the wall. "Where exactly do you think this is? An ocean? A temple in the middle of a forest?"

Prae smirked at me. It was pretty obvious that neither of those could be correct if we were talking about a dragon. "It is kind of hard to guess what a completely alternate dimension will be like when you're stuck underground at the moment." As the last words rolled off of her tongue, Khalida materialized behind Prae.

"Wow, did you guys experience that too?" she exclaimed, shaking her head in disbelief at something that I wasn't quite sure was relevant. "That was so weird, it felt like I was floating through space or something."

"Khalida," I said, halting her in the middle of her next rant. "Try to work on calming down when you're in the vicinity of other people. It gets the slightest bit annoying after a couple of seconds." There was no negative response from her, but instead a little nod to show that she had gotten the message and would try to work on it. It caught me in disbelief, because mostly every other human being would have some kind of comeback to a suggestion that came so close to an insult like that. But not Khalida.

The three of us waited until the others had reached the End for themselves, and I took out my diamond pickaxe. "What do you need that out for? We're not quite going mining for ores or anything, are we?" Adam snorted sarcastically from across the small room.

I turned back to him with my eyebrows raised. "Really? How else are we supposed to get out of this room? Wait for the Endermen to raise their pickaxes and dig us out?"

"I've actually seen Endermen picking up blocks and moving them to other specific locations," said Nicole, but was silenced by a look from me. I turned back to the wall and began mining up in a staircase pattern. The special kind of stone in the wall was surprisingly nonresistant, and it cracked apart easily with two swings of my diamond pickaxe. Soon enough, a block that broke away revealed the surface of whatever ground we had been in, and I popped my head up before mining the last step.

The sky looked exactly like the portal had, black with small white stars all over the place. The stone that we had dug through stretched on until the end of the world, which actually wasn't far. I noticed that this dimension was limited to one floating island in the middle of a black oblivion, like a simplified and gloomy alternative to the Aether. The terrain of the stone island itself was rugged, with rising hills popping up at random places around the area. The hole I had dug up to our stairs was in the middle of a valley that was circled by hills that acted as ridges to keep us in a bowl of sorts. What was even more interesting, though, were giant spires that went up from the white stone made of pure obsidian. They were literally thirty blocks tall each, and I counted them all to make twelve. They were spread across the floating island randomly, and as I looked at the ones farther away, I could see an odd crystal on top of each one at the right angle. It was purple, and it seemed to turn around in a block of glass, and it floated above a small slab of bedrock that was emitting fire into the air. Not quite something you see every day.

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot. There were Endermen everywhere. Like, you couldn't walk ten blocks without bumping into one. Scanning the size of the floating island, which was probably the size of the large bay in Novum Eboracum, I would guess that there were numbers that stretched higher than two hundred of them.

And high above the island itself was a black shape that flew around, seemingly patrolling the island to check for any sign of humans; or in that case, me. It looked very similar to what it had in my dream before when it destroyed our ship at sea, but more threatening. This was the Enderdragon's home turf, and it would not go out easily. Its wingspan stretched to magnificent lengths, and it had sharp, pointed black teeth to compliment all of the other giant assets it boasted. And unfortunately, I was the one who had to find a way to destroy it.

"We're going to have to start fighting from the get go. Once you get up, let's lock down this area to try and set up a base of sorts while we try to find a way to defeat the Enderdragon. We can't let this site be compromised," I ordered everyone, speaking down the small column of stairs that went down through the stone. Once I finished, I turned back to the last block in the stairs and mined it up so that we could continue up. Before I climbed up, I took out Monarch.

"Break a leg, everyone!" I shouted, a battle cry for us as we charged out of the staircase. The Endermen in the vicinity seemed to jump in their boots, searching for the search of the noise until they found us making our way onto their soil. About ten of them teleported up to us, and the battle began. And no sooner did it start than I dodged the swipe of a deadly claw to roll past my opponents legs and stab it there, right where it would hurt the most for a mob that balanced on two of the skinniest legs I had ever seen. The Endermen I had stabbed was crippled, and fell over with a thud, succumbing to Monarch being jabbed in its face. One down, countless to go.

The pack of Endermen that had advanced on us swarmed around us, but it was obvious that we wouldn't go down easily. Everyone had to switch to close combat weapons, much to some people's content. But you couldn't exactly snipe an enemy with an arrow from two feet away without getting slashed in the face by their sharp claws.

I moved around the group, taking short jabs and slashes at the Endermen while they were focused on another person. Singlehandedly, I wounded about half of the Endermen, striking the killing blows on about half of those. I could feel the power flowing through my veins.

The last Enderman to survive our initial attack was Remington's opponent, as he had already swiftly beaten one and was just now taking his initial strikes at it. The Enderman slashed at Remington and scraped the warrior's chest, but his iron armor was much too strong. While his opponent's balance was off, Remington swung his diamond broadsword roughly at its legs. The blade crippled it, knocking it even more off balance to the point that it fell over onto the white stony ground. Remington stepped backward to catch his breath as Clara drove her diamond tomahawk dramatically into the Enderman's skull. He chest opened to reveal another Eye of Ender, but no one picked it up. We didn't need anymore.

The Endermen who hadn't come to attack us had certainly noticed us, seeming to group together to discuss our arrival. We had a lot of room around us, and I took a moment to eat a small slice of bread that I had packed. It was more just to refill my energy that drained out in the fight, not to resolve any injury I had suffered. There was no injury to suffer anyways, as I had been careful amidst the fight.

"So what exactly are we going to do from here, Alex?" Prae asked, taking a small bite out of her own food. Everyone was taking small snacks.

That was an interesting question, after all. "Well, obviously we need to find out exactly how to defeat the Enderdragon. I have a sinking feeling that it won't be as easy as sticking a sword in its eye. Do you see those crystal things on top of the obsidian pillars?" I explained to the group, pointing up at the spinning shapes atop the high structures. "There's something inside me that says that those are there for a reason."

Vanessa took out her bow and a single arrow from her quiver and lit the tip of the flint on fire with a torch and loaded it. "Let's see exactly how the Enderdragon responds to pain while we're waiting, shall we?" she said, and let the string go. The small shape cut through the air until it hit the Enderdragon in its right wing while it made a turn toward our side of the island from a little way away. The flaming tip pierced the black skin that made up its wing, and the Enderdragon roared with rage. It took a veering turn toward us and swiftly dodged the obsidian pillar closest to us to spurt out a plume of purple flames above our heads. It was too high to actually be directed at us, but more of a warning, I believed. Still, the intense heat could be felt on the stone floor we stood on.

What was more interesting was the gash that the arrow had made. The arrow was lodged in it, cutting the skin and clearly damaging the Enderdragon somehow. However, as it flew closer to one of the obsidian pillars, a long beam of light extended from the spinning crystal that sat atop the structure. As the beam connected with the flying creature, the arrow seemingly faded away and the cut sealed itself. That was impossible; it had just healed itself without any effort, it seemed. The Enderdragon flew off to the other side of the island without hesitation, as if we had just been annoying it by firing weapons at it.

Vanessa looked at the rest of us. "Well, that was a little bit of a waste, wouldn't you say?" she shrugged, putting her bow back in its quiver to take out her own diamond sword. "It's pretty obvious what we do next, then."

Some of the group raised their eyebrows, but I nodded in agreement. "It is quite simple, really. Those crystals are healing the Enderdragon every time it comes around, so we'll make absolutely no progress until we destroy them all," I told the others, gesturing toward the towering black structures. "And just for our convenience, they're placed on top of giant obsidian towers."

The group finished eating their snacks used to regenerate their health and took their weapons back out. "So what's the plan, then? Move out and split into our squads?" Mike asked.

After a quick nod, we grouped into our squads of three. Prae and Khalida moved over to me. "Good luck on your endeavors, everyone," Remington wished us, and the four teams spread out in different directions. Khalida and Prae followed me to the left of where we had been standing, where three towers stood tall above the white stone. I could see the crystal of the nearest one easily as it sat atop the obsidian pillar, gleaming in the dark sky. "That is going to be an awfully long climb, and we'll have to do it three separate times too," I complained, staring at the high towers nervously.

"Maybe we don't necessarily have to," Prae wondered, biting her lip out of angst. She took her own bow and arrows out of her backpack and slipped one of the arrows into the bowstring. Concentrating hard, one eye open to get a better sight of the crystal, she let go of the string to send the arrow cutting through the air. "This one's for Jessica!" she shouted in anger, and the arrow collided with the crystal high in the air. She must have hit it dead on, because the impact triggered an instant explosion that split the air dramatically. Fire burst from the top of the pillar, and I kicked the ground in anger. If only the Enderdragon had been next to the plume of flames as they shot in the sky, and it would've been severely hurt.

Prae, though, wasn't caught up in the same emotion as me. Her entire body shook in what I believed to be anger, her face red with rage. "Nice shot," I said quietly, and she shook her head to clear it. "I'm sorry, I'm just, I…" She couldn't finish the sentence, and instead took the easy way out: wrapping her arms around me and kissing full on the lips. Her face was wet with tears, and her arms caused my body to shiver a little bit, too.

"GUYS!" I heard Khalida yell from behind Prae, and threw myself to the ground with Prae just in time to dodge and Enderman's attack. It had been trying to grab me by swiping both of its arms through the air, but came up empty handed and silly looking. While it was off balance, I pushed off the ground and connected my fist with its face, knocking the mob backwards. It fell to the ground to reveal three others, and they had not come to talk.

My eyes narrowed with intensity. "Dog eat dog, they say," I muttered, and jabbed Monarch at one of the Endermen. It easily dodged the attack and clawed at me, but I sidestepped. While in that motion, I brought my diamond sword down on the injured Enderman who was lying on the ground unsuspectingly. It killed it immediately, but I had to quickly pull the tip of my blade out in order to dodge another attack while keeping my sword in hand.

Prae struggled to her feet behind me, and I fended off the Endermen until she was able to join back in the fight. I swiped and slashed, jumped and ducked, sidestepped and parried. Not once did I get hit by one of the beasts, and I was determined to keep that streak alive. After all, fueled by the adrenaline inside of me at the moment, there was no way that I would accept a sudden death like these Endermen seemed to be succumbing to.

Finally, there was one left, but it was able to get the first move on me. The blow was more of a punch than a slash, differing from a typical Enderman attack, but it was powerful enough to knock me to the ground. It hadn't done me any real damage, but it left me more vulnerable than I ever would have preferred to be. Why would it try to knock me over instead of just go for the kill? Were they getting smarter somehow?

But now I was in the weak position, and I realized that I had dropped Monarch on my way down. I reached my hand for it, but the Enderman readied its claw high above my head, preparing for a large strike at my skull. This was going to be a very painful way to die, I thought, and braced for impact. But it never came.

Instead, a small, blunt iron knife stuck out through the Enderman's chest, creating a hole where it's center of gravity should normally be. The knife came out as quickly as it had gone in, leaving a bloody hole there. The Enderman was pushed aside so that it fell dead to my right, and the knife hung in midair. Slowly, though, colors began appearing in front of me to reveal the outline of a human. It was a fascinating effect as the colors seemed to wash over her like paint. Soon enough, Khalida was standing there, grinning mischievously.

From my spot on the ground, I spoke. "I thought that you never used actual weapons, just potions," I told her, and she shrugged as I got back to my feet.

"It was my father's before New Copenhagen was destroyed by the Endermen," she explained, sliding the knife back in a small pocket near the waist of her skirt. "Besides, I used a potion to get behind the Enderman anyways. Never know when a potion of invisibility might come in handy."

Once I was back on my feet, I picked Monarch back up off of the floor and checked on Prae. She was still a little rattled by the previous events, but she wiped her eyes and continued with us. We started toward the next pillar.

Explosions like the initial one that we had set off were audible all around the floating island at this point. Clearly the other squads had been able to figure out that shooting the crystals with arrows would help significantly, just like us. Soon enough, we had reached our own second obsidian pillar. I took out my own bow and arrow this time, and aimed a little bit above the spinning crystals on top of the structure to allow for some arc on the shot. Once I knew I was ready, I let go of the bowstring.

The arrow was soon out of sight from our position on the ground, and it must have hit the crystal as well, because another large explosion burst from the top of our pillar. I shielded my eyes to block them from the intense heat that radiated from the top of the structure now. Once the blast of the explosion stopped ringing in my ears, another loud sound commenced. This was much more natural, and I glanced up to see the Enderdragon passing over us. The sound was its roar of fury, angry that we had found a way to weaken it. I didn't want another reaction from it.

The three of us hurried to the last pillar on our part of the island. I had counted the explosions so far, and there had been eleven. This was the last pillar of all. I glanced around to make sure that there were no Endermen near us, and then waited for the Enderdragon to make another pass. "What exactly are you doing?" Prae queried.

"The explosion could really hurt the Enderdragon, I think at least," I explained to her, readying the arrow for the last crystal. The Enderdragon turned a corner so that it was flying toward us, and I let go of the bowstring. This time, the Enderdragon was right next to the pillar when the explosion went off. It was deafening, and the flames shot all over. What was more important, though, was that the Enderdragon flipped over, injured, and smashed into the ground just a stone's throw away from us. It didn't look like it was getting back up anytime soon, either.

"Nice timing," Prae muttered, and I put my bow and arrows back in my toolbelt and swapped them out for Monarch for greater damage. "Thanks," I smiled, checking to make sure that all of my armor was secure and strong. There were no problems with it, so I started walking toward the Enderdragon. Prae and Khalida started to follow me, but I waved them off. "No, this is just for me. I have to kill it myself."

Prae kept walking though, and instead of going past me toward the Enderdragon, she wrapped her arms around me once more to say goodbye. Our lips met once more, but I had to go for an uncertain time now. "This is it, Prae," I whispered to her, pulling back. "This is where it all stops."

And with that, I turned away from her to start towards the heap of a body laying awkwardly on the ground in front of me. I am Alex Glowstone, I thought. I am ready to die.

The white stone was hard under my feet as I traversed it carefully, walking slowly toward the large black mass that rested on the ground. Its head was facing me, purple eyes just barely open and its wings sprawled out roughly. There were cuts and scratches all over it, and a large burn mark on one of its wings. The explosion really had done a significant amount of damage, so I was grateful for that at least. But was it weak enough to accept death from me? That was something that I really didn't want to have to find out, but it was necessary.

Soon enough, I stood just a few feet from the head of my worst enemy, and it snorted in a greeting, somewhat. _I will not allow you to destroy me. You are weak, weakened by sorrow and grief and mourning for all of your losses. What stake does a single human hold to the greatest being of all time? Failure is yours to grasp, and you just won't accept it. So I will have to teach you what you have done wrong. Fight me, and you will learn everything. The lies, the pain, everything will be explained. All you need to do is trust me and fight. And lose…_

"What the hell are you trying to tell me?" I sputtered, caught off guard by the oddness of what the Enderdragon was trying to tell me. These thing it was saying, it was like I was fighting for a lost cause. Well, I could see how that perception could be made, but Minecraftia was still very much alive. So I would fight, and not because it was commanding me too or anything, but because it was in my will. I was not the Enderdragon's toy, or Notch's experiment. I am not a number in a world generated by coding. I am a free man. And I will fight until my very last breath, if that is what the world depends on.

I stepped forward, closer and closer to the head of the Enderdragon. It was severely injured, but it was not out yet. There was a glitter in its eyes, that it wasn't quite finished yet. It still very much alive, and it would do anything to stop me from trying to destroy everything that it had worked for. I raised Monarch. "Fight me, then," I spat, angry now that it was acting like it was its decision for me to fight it. "If you want to teach me why I can't defeat you, then fight me like you're supposed to. You and your bitter followers are just trying to tear a perfect world apart, so fight me so that you can achieve that goal. There is no way I'll stand down."

The eyes had been alive, I had known it. But when the Enderdragon raised its head, opening its mouth and readying a fresh column of flames, I had not expected it. I jumped aside at the last second, dodging a thick tongue of purple embers, and jumped onto its wing. Crawling on its back, it began to push off of the ground and begin flying away. Losing my footing, I stabbed Monarch in its back and gripped the handle, my last hope of somehow staying alive.

There was no wind in this Realm, the 5th Realm, or what Notch had called the End. But as the Enderdragon carried me through the black sky, it felt like a storm was trying with all of its might to wrench me off of my target. Monarch held deep inside of the wound I had created, though, and it appeared that I wasn't going anywhere. That was what I had thought, at least, until the Enderdragon made its next move. It was all too decisive. _You pesky humans are nothing to me. Learn the lies that have been held from you, and why I seek to rule you all to try and bring a peace to everyone. A peace between mobs and Minecraftians, something previously thought to be unattainable. But no longer. Learn, Alex Glowstone…_

It swerved around an obsidian pillar, creating so much friction in the air that Monarch flew out of the open wound. A trail of blood followed it, but with Monarch came me as well. I felt weightlessness, falling through the sky toward the floating island with my sword raised above me, plummeting with my back to the ground.

Finally, I hit the white stone ground, creating a hole so deep that I rested at the bottom on my back in pain. My diamond armor had kept me from dying, I was sure that that would have been fatal had I not been wearing it. The hole was slanted, so I would be able to climb back out. But as I tried to lift my head, an intense vertigo sensation came over me, and I fell back lifelessly against the floor. Was this death? Or just unconsciousness?

**TPoM**

The scene that I woke in was much different from the world I had just been in. I was laying on the ground, unmoving. I couldn't control myself. It was a dream of sorts, I knew, but I was already mapped out to do something. I didn't have the opportunity to actually make any decisions for myself. But I could still feel, hear, see. I wish I couldn't, though.

I was laying in the middle of a pile of wreckage, my legs and stomach buried by hot stone and ash. Once again, it was that weird world where everything was smoother somehow, seemingly made out of individual things instead of a countless number of pixels. I remembered that I had seen this in a link of sorts before we had met the group Jessica had brought to us.

The air around me was tight and hot, and my eyesight was poor. The person that I was in this reality of sorts seemed to gain consciousness, and I moved my chest and arms. "Jesus Christ," I muttered, trying to push a large chunk of wood that was part of the pile of debris that had collapsed on top of me. "Hello? Is there anyone else out there?" I shouted.

There was silence, but I eventually heard footsteps. Two people in bad shape, cut and scratched and covered in ash and filth reached me. They both carried those weapons that shot projectiles before, and they crouched down next to me. "Are you alive, for sure?" one of them asked. I nodded. They looked at each other and through a silent agreement began pulling away the dirt and debris that had locked me down. It didn't take that long to separate my legs from the debris with two people pulling away the debris. Once that was done, I slipped backwards, feeling very weak. They lifted my arms and brought me to my feet awkwardly.

"Is this it, then? We're the only survivors you've found?" I questioned, pausing to cough roughly into my sleeve. My throat was aching badly, but I kept walking behind them. "What's the word on the meeting attendants?"

"All captured or M.I.A., most likely the former for most of them," the man responded, pausing at the frame of the door. He turned back to me to speak directly to my face. "Well, at least we put in a decoy for you, sir."

"Yeah, honestly, I have no idea how we could even keep this war going in our favor if the head of the military was captured. Thank God that you're alive," the other man told me, and the scene faded to black.

What in the world was all of that supposed to mean? I had no body anymore, and the entire world was just blackness. _Do you see what war and conflict has done to life? In Earth, the two sides have been fighting for two hundred years and can't find a side to clearly be the victor. And just now, when the Resistance thought that they had completely destroyed all form of leadership in their enemy, the Anonymous head of military is found in the rubble of an assault, for he had a double go in for him at the meeting. So the war will live on. If the sides had had the same values and rulers, then there would have never been a war in the first place. Only peace between equals can actually last._

The blackness morphed into another scene, showing a woman sitting at a table. She was spinning a coin constantly on the wooden tabletop, and her face was glum. The room was small, with a chandelier hanging over the table and the walls gray. A door opened in the back of the room, revealing a man of about forty wearing a brown coat and long khaki pants. There was no doubting it was Notch, especially since his trademark brown bowler hat was resting atop his hair.

"Emily, I don't know if I can convince you anymore. My only hope is that you can convince yourself to follow me," Notch spoke to her. I realized that this time I didn't even have a body, and appeared to just be standing in the room without either of them actually noticing me. "This is the greatest invention in history, and you are just casting it away like it doesn't even matter to you or anyone else. Well, it does! This could be the perfect world, and I created it, and you won't even explore it with me-"

"Markus," she said, silencing him. She stood and reached in her pocket and took out a small rectangular shaped device. "I can't follow you to Minecraftia because I want to live my life here, on Earth. I'm sorry, but this is the life I've chosen. I know that it is astonishing that you've been able to create Minecraftia the way you have, but it really isn't for me. And I'm sorry," she continued, and wiped away a tear that had begun to roll down her cheek. "You can take this. We both know what it is, and I can't say it aloud. But make sure that whenever he has to be incepted, he knows who I am."

"But Emily, you know that I can't-"

"Markus, I swear to God! You have to let him know the truth. Maybe he'll be five years old, maybe he'll be fifteen, maybe he'll be fifty. But he has to know the truth at some point," she shrieked, shoving the small device in Notch's hands. "Here's your flash-drive. I just don't know if I can even love you anymore."

Notch closed his fist around the flash-drive and slipped it into his pocket. "You can, you know," he said quietly. He glanced in my direction, as if he knew I was actually there. "You can name him whatever you want."

She stopped crying, sitting back down. "The coding is all there, right? The files, our genes, everything that I need to create him?" Notch asked.

"Alex," Emily whispered, at a loss for words. "Name him Alex."

Notch walked back to the door. He pushed it open, and holding it open with his hand, he turned back. "Emily, be careful." And with that, he walked away, and the door shut slowly behind him.

Once more, the entire world around me faded to black. And just like before, I was at a complete loss for words. There was no logical explanation that I could think of about what that meant exactly. It didn't make any sense. Had they been talking about… _me_?

_Glowstone, why don't you ever learn to understand how much you have been lied to. The people that you thought had created this world and were your own people are actually creators of the hell that you call home. There is so much more for you to learn, and you are too naïve to accept it. This is why you will meet your downfall now, because you refuse to accept that the two of us are the greatest beings to ever exist. As two, we could rule everything and everyone and make it for the better. You are the strongest man to ever walk any Realm, and I am the strongest entity. Together we could dispose of Notch, the man you hate, the man who lied to you. Together, we could be the strongest duo ever._

The blackness seemed to grow darker at the Enderdragon's proposal. This was too much for me to handle. It was proposing an alliance with me, after all that it and its army had done to me and my friends? There was no chance in hell that I would fall for that. I shook my head, realizing that I did have a body in this void, even though I couldn't see it for myself. Straining to wake up, I had to wake up, I had to defeat the Enderdragon, I had to wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up!

WAKE UP!

**TPoM**

My eyes opened to reveal a very blurred peripheral vision. My entire body ached, but only one thing was important; I was still alive. And if I was still alive, then I could still defeat the Enderdragon somehow. It would be hard, just like I had always thought, but I could.

I put my palms on the ground and pushed myself up to my feet. I felt like I couldn't see anything because I was so dizzy. The hole that I had created by smashing through the stone was rough, and I balanced myself on one of the walls. I had to regain full consciousness before I got to the surface. Breathing slowly, in, out, every second I tried to get more oxygen inside of my body. And yet, my dizziness faded too slowly. I started climbing up the slanted path anyways.

Halfway I up I paused once more, and shook my head to clear my mind. Everything was too blurred, but it was getting better. The notion that I might be going insane crossed my mind. No, it was probably just a concussion of sorts. It had to be. If I was insane, then what was I supposed to do?

Another step up made a jolt of pain shoot up my leg. A scream emitted from my mouth, but I could only just hear it. I had to reach the surface. I had to reach the Enderdragon.

Finally, my hand clawed the edge of the hole and I pulled myself to the ground. The black sky hung over me, and the Enderdragon passed over it to fly down towards me. And suddenly, I completely regained consciousness, and I stood straightly. My head still felt a little nauseous, but at least I could actually walk now. And more importantly, fight.

The Enderdragon made a diving turn down to me. I limped toward it, my leg practically broken. I could see the group a distance away, much too far away for me to somehow communicate with them. I took Monarch out of my toolbelt and dragged it across the ground behind me while I marched toward the Enderdragon. It was very close now, flying close to the white stone ground to me. I lifted Monarch, and as it was about to pass over me, I swung viciously at it from my position on the ground.

My diamond blade cut directly into the Enderdragon, but what was more important was my fate. I was too vulnerable standing there, and I hadn't really thought about how easily I could be hit by my enemy. But by the time I realized it, it was too late, and the claw from under its wing cut into me. The impact sent me flying back, taking the large, jagged claw with me through the air as I sailed off. Blood trailed me, and I faced the Enderman as I flew backward.

The claw was like a black blade stuck inside of me, stabbed into me much like any other kind of weapon that a person might use. I hit the ground with heavy impact, rolling over so that I laid on my back weakly. I had never felt so deadened, so weak. And yet, here I was, about to die at the mercy of my greatest enemy.

I had been ready to die, though, right? So why was it such a surprise to learn that that was my fate at the moment. It shouldn't have been that big of a deal, but of course, I knew that dying was no laughing matter. I would be gone forever, gone from Prae, gone from Remington, gone from all of the survivors in Novum Eboracum. And just because I was gone, they would all have to die as well. I didn't want that to have to be reality, but it was the truth. I was going to die, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

Then again, there was one thing that I could try. If I didn't do it quickly enough, I would die from blood loss, but I would die anyways from laying here. I guessed that I had about five minutes to live because of fatigue, blood loss, and the threat that the Enderdragon was going to strike a killing blow on me. That was my only hope, that it would make a pass. So I got to work on my last move. My last word. I was sacrificing my king, as they say in chess.

My hand found a way around my injury to grip the black claw that had separated and was now resting in me. I grabbed it and lifted it out of my wound. It was about the size of my forearm, and I gripped the end of it now. I had one throw. The Enderdragon would be close to death after all of this, too. All it needed was a killing blow.

It circled down, passing over me to make sure I was dead. Once it was just a few blocks away, I threw the small claw, slick with blood, and it flew through the air and cut into the Enderdragon's eye. The hit seemed to severely injure it, and a magnificent roar pierced the air; the loudest one yet. _NO! I… can't… lose!_

The Enderdragon arced up and flew straight up into the air, higher than it ever had before. The feeling of nausea was creeping back into me, but I kept my eyes open to watch the sky. The Enderdragon paused way high atop us, and I blinked. I was dying, I knew it. Goodbye Novum Eboracum, goodbye Aria, goodbye Matthew, goodbye to the parents I never knew, goodbye to Prae, goodbye to everyone.

The last thing I saw before my vision blacked out was the Enderdragon splitting into tiny pieces as giant green beams of light burst out of it, destroying it completely. The black spots that had been on the edge of my vision completely covered it. My head slumped over. That was how I met my sudden death.


	39. Oblivion

**Chapter 39**

**Oblivion**

If this was what death felt like, I completely accepted it. There was a weightlessness to it, a sense of peace. I didn't have a care in the world, after all, I didn't even remember how I had died. Had I died? If this was what death felt like, I completely accepted it.

No… That wasn't right. I had already had that thought. What the hell… Who even _am _I? I tried to think of my identity. Something about a stone, but nothing more than that could be remembered. This was not good. People are supposed to know who they are, aren't they?

For another thing, where was I? I opened my eyes, except I didn't have eyes, just a sense of sight in itself. There was nothing to see, just white. What had happened to me? Oh yeah, death. I had died somehow. Well, if this was what death felt like, I completely accepted it. Dammit! I had had that thought at least once already! Hadn't I?

On the white backdrop, words began appearing at random. Maybe they weren't exactly words, but just random letters and numbers. I couldn't make anything out of them, anyways. They seemed completely meaningless to me. Maybe they did spell out something and I just couldn't read. No, I could definitely read. I would have to be really young to not be able to do that, and I was having thoughts not suited for a two year old. Or was I? I really didn't now.

Finally, out of the jumble of words came an electronic voice. It was vaguely female, but that was very hard to tell. "System reboot," it spoke shortly, and I listened for more. There was none. I tried to reply, but I didn't have a mouth. Wait, what was a mouth? Some form of communication, but besides, I could just think my thoughts and other people would know what I was trying to tell them. That was how humans normally communicated anyways, right? No, that didn't sound right, but I didn't know what else to go with.

So instead, I thought. _Who is that talking? Where, what, and who am I? I don't seem to know anything…_

The voice responded with its own dialogue, and at first I didn't think that it made any sense. "Loading personality file emily's_ ," it spoke, and the words that had been scrolling down the whiteness in front of me began moving faster. And all of a sudden, I remembered everything; who I was, what I was, and what had happened to me. But that didn't answer my most important question; where was I right now?

I still didn't have a body or anything, but I could think clearly now. What had happened to the others? They were surely trapped in the End indefinitely now, having to fight the Endermen to the death, except there was absolutely nowhere for them to actually go. They were doomed, surely, and there was nothing that I could do about it.

The black words that scrolled on the white oblivion in front of me, now I guessed that they were the code that the Endermen had been changing. And then the ball dropped inside of me. If they were altering the code, then they had complete control over me right now. I struggled to move out of whatever chains I was stuck in, accept there were none. I was nothing now, just a soul without a purpose. But what would the Endermen exactly do to me?

This must have been some twisted version of hell that I was stuck in. Waiting forever for the Endermen to perform the procedures and tortures that they were surely going to try on me. There was no way to brace for an impact, though. And just when I was beginning to think that I'd be stuck here forever, surely, the voice came back. "Loading gameplay file end_ ," it said simply, and I felt myself getting a body once more.

I opened my eyes, blocking them from the weird code structures that I had seen before. I had my body once more, but I had lost all of my armor. My toolbelt, as well, was completely missing, and I sat on a black chair that was pushed up to a desk of the same blank color. Other than that, the entire landscape was white, just like before. A chill went up my back, and I folded my hands together on the tabletop nervously. What was this place?

On the other side of the table were two chairs identical to the one that I was sitting in at the moment. Behind them, materializing out of the white fog, were two tall, skinny, black shapes. It didn't take a genius to figure out that two Endermen were approaching me at the moment. They stood over the chairs, staring at me, their purple eyes glowing down at me. Another shiver went down my back, uncertain of what they really wanted out of me.

"Alex Glowstone," the one on the left said, pulling its chair out from under the table so that it could sit down. There was no mouth for it to open in order to speak, but the words were projected anyways. But unlike before, the cold and icy Endermen voices weren't just that; they sounded warm, one might even say welcoming. "Thank you for what you have done."

I raised an eyebrow. "Thank you? Why are you thanking me if I killed a ton of you and your leader?" I queried, not only nervous now but confused as well.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves to you, my friend," the Enderman to the right spoke, raising a hand in greeting. The claws that were usually outstretched on the end of their hands were detracted. "My name is Milo, and this is my comrade Cosmo. We are here as representatives of the Enderman race to explain to you the great deed that you have just performed in our favor."

I blinked to try and clear my head. "Um… Are you sure that this isn't just some really weird dream that I am having at the moment?" I sputtered, rattled by this odd event.

The Enderman on the left, named Cosmo, laughed a little at this comment. "Alex Glowstone, even if you were to be having a dream, it would be impossible for us to create a link with you. We don't have enough experience at this point in order to perform that task. No, actually, you'll be quite surprised to hear the truth." The mob paused to take a short breath. "You are dead as we speak."

"Dead?" I yelled. I didn't want to be dead, although I knew it was going to happen, but I certainly didn't feel dead, no, no I didn't…

"Dead. Croaked, kicked the bucket, killed, sucked out of life, dead," Cosmo clarified, its voice calm as if this were just another happening in the day. Well, maybe it was for him because _he_ wasn't the one who had died with a life that he couldn't leave!

I shook my head hysterically. "No, that can't be true. And if it is, then this must be heaven or something, and I am sure as hell that _you_," I started, pointing accusingly at the both of them, "wouldn't be the ones to see me in. So you better tell me exactly what this hallucination or whatever is, because I will not rest until I know!"

"Calm down, my friend, we're on your side," Milo sighed, as if I was pestering him by freaking out. I had the right to at this moment, I was pretty sure. "You're dead, but we Endermen are programming your rebirth. You'll be alive again in a few moments, just be patient. But what we are here to tell you is much more important than things that you'll find out in a few minutes."

This was all too weird. How could they just make me respawn if I had died? And anyways, why would they try to help me anyways if I had completely destroyed their lives? "We were always on your side, in fact, but we were being controlled by the Enderdragon," Cosmo explained. "We were under much the same effect that we were inflicting on all of the other mobs in your Realm; creepers, skeletons, spiders, and zombies all alike."

The female voice from before was audible once more. "Rebirth procedure of file emily's_ fifty percent complete."

"Cosmo, hurry. We don't have much time to explain to him," Milo said nervously.

"Right," Cosmo replied. "Alex, don't try and kill us anymore. We were neutral before, back when Notch first created us before Minecraftians could actually become part of this world. We are back in that state now, now that the Enderdragon has been defeated. Notch created it too, but it was always hostile. Now Minecraftia is completely safe."

"Seventy five percent complete."

"Alex!" Milo yelled, now desperate to get in information. "You have to find your way back to Novum Eboracum as soon as you can. But that isn't the only thing. Someday, the Enderdragon will be back, and there is only one way to stop it. And since it has already failed in trying to take Minecraftia as its own, it will go for Earth. This cannot happen. You have to find a way to stop it from completely destroying everything that we hold dear to ourselves."

"Loading one hundred percent complete. Synchronizing world. Generating terrain. Loading chunks. Uploading personality file," the female robotic voice said once again. My body faded once more, and so did the black table and the Endermen that had been there with me. The last thing I heard out of one of them were the words, "Goodbye, Alex Glowstone."

With that, the world faded to white again, and I floated again. The Endermen had programmed me to be resurrected from the dead, but why? Some questions I thought I might never find out. Others, it was only a matter of time, and that time was about to come.

But for now, the world reconstructed itself around me, and I waited. My time had already come anyways, unless the Enderdragon did indeed come back. I thought that that was highly unlikely, but it seemed that anything was possible these days.


	40. Rebirth

**Chapter 40**

**Rebirth**

Gone was the white oblivion, and instead various colors started pouring over my vision. My body reanimated itself, and once more I found myself alive and well. But the first thing that I noticed was not the sensation of being alive, but the throbbing pain in my back. I turned over and fell flat on my face on an ash covered wooden floor.

I stood up and brushed off the shreds of wood off of my jeans. I checked to make sure that my toolbelt was with me for sure, and indeed it was. All of the stuff that I had taken to the End with me, including my armor, were all sitting in the small pockets situated throughout the belt. Once I was sure that I had everything, I looked around the room that I was in.

I had awoken on a broken bed. It had a blanket draped over it, but the wood was heavily splintered so that it even stuck up aggressively in some places, creating a spot that could carve a hole in your back if you weren't careful. There were four other beds spread across the room identical to that, and a broken glass window rested in the wall on the right side of the room. The wall in front of me had double iron doors, but I let those wait for now. Instead, I cautiously made my way back toward the window.

The only glass that had once made up the window that was left were just the edges, and even those were chipping away shards. But as soon as I looked out, my focused changed to the scene in front of me. I was back in Imperial Plains. There was no doubting it; I recognized the street layouts and buildings, and a couple of blocks away I could see the crushed remains of the fallen Royal Guardsmen building. A suspicion went through my brain that I had seen movement, but I dismissed it. Everyone in the city was either dead or in Novum Eboracum, or at least making their way toward the latter.

Still, the site of my hometown in such bad shape nagged at the back of my brain. Ash clogged the air still, but I could breathe well enough. It had been weeks since the attacks here from the Raid of the Endermen, so the many fires that had started had since stopped burning. Still, there was absolutely no lack of complete and total destruction amid the city.

I turned away from the window, feeling like a stone had just been set in my stomach. The grief of all the people that had died was becoming just too great. But why would I respawn in this building of all places? I had a suspicion, but I would have to be sure…

I walked over to the iron doors and turned the handle of the one on the right. It wouldn't budge. I guess it must have been rusted shut or something, so instead I just took out my pickaxe and mined it up. I really didn't want to waste any time with a door of all things, after all.

The hallway was just as deserted as the room that I had just been in. There was a sign above the pair of doors that I had just walked through on this side of them. I looked closer at it, reading the words 'Maternity Ward'. If I remembered correctly, that was a specific room in a hospital where mothers gave birth to their kids. So if I was respawning here, then that bed must have been the bed that my mother had given me to the world. I checked back on the room slowly, just to take another short glimpse at it. If that was where I had been born, then I was surprisingly close to home. But Imperial Plains wasn't home, now. I knew that for a fact, and that meant that I had to get back to Novum Eboracum.

First of all, I had to get out of this building. Walking through the hallway, taking short glances at every small sign of the attack from weeks before, I felt a twinge of guilt. If there was something that I could have possibly done to save other people, then I would have done it. I was sure of that, but there was still the nagging feeling inside of me that I wouldn't have been able to in the first place. Why was I so intent on being dazed and confused on the subject of all the other people and what I could've done to prevent their deaths if it wasn't my fault that they were losing their lives anyways? Maybe it was some weird kind of righteousness inside of me, but it was beginning to feel annoying to myself.

At the bottom of the stairs was the lobby of the hotel. The iron blocks that made up the ceiling, walls, and floor wasn't shining brightly like they normally did; they were masked by a cold and sorrow face of ash. The effect made the room feel very unwelcoming, and I hurried across the floor past the broken chairs and flipped tables to the iron doors that admitted entrance to the facility. I pushed one of them open from the inside and stepped out into the street.

The sunlight was clogged somehow, not exactly casting all of its light down on us and instead serving as a placeholder to torches. The sky was tainted by a red fog of dust and ash from the attack, and that was precisely what was blocking the sunlight. On the street were the dead bodies of various mobs and, in a much lesser quantity, humans. The smell of rotting flesh that was usually apparent in a scene like this was absent, but instead the dry smell of must filled the air. This smell wasn't exactly good either, but at least it wasn't attributed with death.

In my time of observing my surroundings, I hadn't even noticed the man standing on the other side of the street. I caught him on the corner of my hat, and he tipped his brown bowler hat to me. There was no mistaking the presence of the figure, and I walked across the street to the sidewalk on the other side of the road to him. Once I was standing next to him, I fixed my eyes on his gaze so that we were locked. Neither of us seemed to want to break away.

Finally, he spoke. "So, you did it," Notch mumbled, as if he were almost disappointed in this fact. What could he possibly not be happy about in that situation, after all? There was no way for me to tell, as his eyes showed absolutely no emotion as they stared into mine. I noticed that I was already about an inch taller than him at just fourteen years old.

I bowed my head in response, as if I were about to nod in confirmation but decided against it at the very last second. There was another silence between us as I broke eye contact. His hand touched my shoulder lightly, and I looked back up. "Come with me," he said quietly, as if we were being watched by someone, "I have much to explain to you."

He lifted his palm from my shoulder blade, and began walking along the sidewalk toward the edge of the city. It took me a couple seconds to actually comprehend the fact that I was supposed to walk forward after him. I did this, stepping gingerly as if not to disturb the dead bodies laid out across the ground. The closer that we got to the city's gates, the less frequent they became, much to my relief.

"I suppose that the Endermen gave you a brief synopsis of why you have been given the temporary ability to, as my brother calls it, cheat death," Notch began, turning to me as we walked. At this point, I had caught up so that I was walking beside him. Even though this was true, I couldn't muster the strength to even speak to answer his question, instead nodding again.

Notch didn't make any expression to show that he minded. "And they left you thinking that I would have a lot to get through your head as well, correct?" he asked, and I nodded once more. At this point, I couldn't even look up at him. I didn't know why, maybe it was because I was still mad at him about everything, but that wasn't quite it. I would know if it was, after all.

We passed a house that had remained standing somewhat. Its frame, at least, was still intact, but the wooden supports that held it together were heavily burnt and charred. I had little doubt that I would find a dead body inside of the house, though. If the house hadn't been completely destroyed, then the mobs would have actually gone inside to take out their victims personally. In a way, it was even more gruesome.

"They were indeed right. So I must start with explaining why the Endermen even helped you to regain life in the first place," he continued. "I created them as part of the game Minecraft before it actually became the technological phenomenon that we are walking through at the moment. They always were to be related by the Enderdragon, but not this way. The Endermen were neutral mobs, only attacking humans if provoked. And although they weren't very lenient in what was provoking and what wasn't, they still served their place.

"The Enderdragon, however, was the ruler of the Fifth Realm, the End, the dimension that you have just traveled back from. It was hostile toward humans, but obviously, it could never actually leave the End in my coding. However, I deleted the Enderdragon before I made the game into a reality, and erased the Endermen as well because of their relation to it, even if they weren't actually dangerous to the common people. I must not have been thorough, because the Enderdragon came back a couple months ago stronger than ever. Indeed, this time around it had the ability to completely alter the coding within Minecraftia, an ability unheard of and quite dangerous when put in the wrong hands. But it enslaved the Endermen, who took over the minds of mobs in the other dimensions, and here we are.

"Obviously, you have stopped the Raid of the Endermen at this point, but only just narrowly. The Endermen, although are back in the world that I had not planned them to exist in, are quite harmless, and after you setting them free and putting them in debt of you, helpful. And the Enderdragon won't be back, at least for a very long time. But when it does come back, we'll be much better prepared than we were this time."

I milled over the statements that Notch had just made. "The Endermen that respawned me told me that instead of going for Minecraftia next time, it would make the goal of destroying Earth itself. How would it be able to do that?"

"The Enderdragon is one of the most powerful beings of all time. I'm sure that it would find a way to do that," Notch replied. "Anyways, I think that it is almost time to end the experiment of Minecraftia once and for all. I created the portal to Minecraftia as an experiment to test the laws of physics and science, and it has been working flawlessly for two centuries. And even if there is so much more to discover, there will be a time when it has to end."

We reached the gates of the city. The wooden gates were literally lying on the ground haphazardly, as if they were toys that a child had forgotten to pick back up. The walls of the city were crumbling, but the stone structures still held form. There was no guarantee that they would be for very long, however. "For a very long while, now, the people of our world have remained hidden from the true reality. At some point, that time will have to end. It may be years, it may be centuries. But someday, that day will come."

"What about my friends, though? They didn't die from the Endermen, only I did because of the stabbing I received from its claw. Are they just going to be stuck in the End forever, or what?" I asked, suddenly remembering all of my friends that were still in the End.

"Have you forgotten everything that I have told you? The Endermen are aiding them on their way out. Originally, a portal would spawn in the End and when the people jumped back through it, they would respawn in the Overworld like you did just now. However, I tweaked that later so that you just respawn where the stronghold was. The Endermen are explaining to your friends the way back to Novum Eboracum. And that is where the two of us are headed as we speak, as a matter of fact," Notch explained, continuing on the beaten path in the dirt that headed down in the direction of Mt. Wolfpack. This was a long walk to get from here to Novum Eboracum, so I figured that we would have to be using some kind of magic to get there.

There was more that I wanted to know, though. "There was another vision that I saw when the Endermen spoke to me while I was dead, as you call it," I said, introducing a new topic. "Well, technically two, one of which showed some scenes from the war on Earth. But the other one was of you and that woman again; Emily. You said once that you would tell me about her eventually when I first learned about her a long time ago. So I'll ask again; who is she, and why is she so significant?"

Notch sighed for a moment, silent as if he really didn't want to discuss this subject. Based on the previous secrecy about it, that was probably the truth. It took about a minute before Notch answered at all, but I remained quiet as to not test him. "Alex, this is probably one of the hardest things that I'll ever have to tell to anyone. And with the distrust between us, I beg you not to take this the wrong way."

A small sinking feeling became apparent inside of me. Whenever a statement began with those words, that usually meant that something very bad was about to be said. "Just before I initialized the experiment, the woman that you know to be as Emily made a pact with me. The two of us took stem cell samples from our bodies and I loaded them into the world as a personality file. I could have it spawn as a newly bred human whenever I wanted, and I just waited until the time was right. The time was right now, when we needed the perfect human with the fusion of almost supernatural abilities in order to combat the Endermen. And that person, the genes that were fused together into technology, they all resulted in none other than you. So in turn, you are what one could possibly call the perfect human."

He let that statement sink into my skin. It felt odd, that all I was literally was coding within Notch's experiment. I was nothing more than one of the creepers that stalked around the world at night, except I fought a good cause. Then again, there was the insanely cool part of the situation that in a way, I was Notch's son. But still, this was something completely crazy that I didn't even know about until now. So why in the world was I just finding out about it if it was that important?

A twinge of annoyance flashed in my eyes. That was right, why was I just finding out about this right now? My eyes narrowed as I looked back at him. That was so weird, though, how could I have been brought up to worship this man throughout my life and then learning that we were related. Where had he been when I was young, though? Mothers and fathers were supposed to take care of their children until they were six years old when they got their own house and began their schooling, and instead he had been in an entirely different dimension. That wasn't exactly good parenting.

It didn't matter anyways, though. I didn't matter my parents at all. I mean, maybe Notch had plugged in his genes into the personality file or whatever that actually was me, there were two people (probably dead now) who had actually done the stuff to actually create me. I shuddered thinking about that. But yeah, they weren't really anything to me emotionally. Usually a person doesn't have much contact with their parents at all until they've passed their Reckoning Day tests. I was an extreme case, having not met them at all for eight years.

"The perfect human," I repeated, astonished at this new revelation. "But, why didn't you tell me before this? I mean, I think that I deserve the right to know who my actual family is from birth, right?" I shook my head, just simply dumbfounded. I was still too thrilled at the prospect of being his son at all and actually defeating the Enderdragon finally to actually stay mad at him.

Notch stared at me sadly. His eyes seemed to sparkle, as if he found some kind of joy in this. Well, if I had just told my son that I was his father for the first time I would be pretty choked up as well, but I also would have been a little bit happier if there was a somewhat positive reaction, too. "Are you mad at me for just telling you now, Alex?" he asked.

Once again, I shook my head lightly. "No, I'm not," I replied, reassuring Notch that I wasn't ticked off or anything. "I'm just astonished, you could say." There was another long moment of silence as we continued along the dirt path that people had traversed so often between the three cities before the Raid of the Endermen. "Can I meet Emily, since she's my mother?"

Notch sighed. "There isn't a light way to put this, is there?" he wondered aloud, frowning. "You might have figured this out based on the two visions that you have had of her so far, but she decided not to come into Minecraftia. And so forth, she is most likely dead because of the lack of immortality in Earth. A heaven like the Aether in Minecraftia was never proven on Earth because there was no way to access it. Even so, most people, including myself, believed in it, but there was no way to access it unless you died. And there is no way to come back from the dead, as you know." Notch paused, stopping himself. "Well, there technically is now, as the Endermen have proven with you. But that's beside the point."

I frowned at this thought, my good spirits from defeating the Enderdragon quickly flickering away the more and more that Notch told me about the reality that I was living in. That's beside the point? Really? I had just been reconstructed from death, learned that the man I worshiped was my parent and the other one was dead, and he was just going to be casual about it all? There was no way that I was going to accept this, no way at all…

"Look, Alex. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything, for keeping secrets from you, for lying to everyone in Minecraftia, for telling you things at the wrong times. I know it may be hard for you to forgive me, but I beg you to at least save our quarrels for another time. Because now, it is time for you to celebrate with your fellow people," Notch told me, talking more and more cheerily as he neared the end of his sentence. "Grab my robe, and we'll be off now."

We stopped on the dirt path, and he held out his hand. We were about to teleport back to Novum Eboracum, I was sure of it. I had never teleported before, but I was sure that it was about the same thing as going through a portal. Putting aside my fears, I grabbed Notch's hand, and he closed his eyes. Within seconds, we were outside Novum Eboracum, standing in the grassy fields outside of the city.

Even though it was night here, the lights of the city shone brightly. Torches and lanterns lined the streets and houses, especially surrounding the crops growing in the small farms on the outskirts of the city. But the true spectacle was the cheering of crowds from the center of the city, and the fireworks shooting into the air, bursting in red and green explosions. It was simply magical. I turned to my right again, where Notch had been standing, but now he was gone.

I turned back to the city, and not being able to hold it in any longer, I started laughing. Laughing to the point that tears began coming out of my eyes, and then I was running, sprinting across the street to the center of town, hurrying past the houses and shops and businesses, because all I wanted to do was celebrate.

Finally, I reached the intersection of Glowstone Lane and I turned, and I watched the waterfront. People were grouped together in mass crowds on the docks, lining the water as the Imperial Battalion stood on the wooden platform behind the town hall. The mayor was up there too, but I didn't even bother to think of his name, instead sprinting through the crowds and breaking free on the wooden platform myself.

For a minute, no one noticed I was up there as they talked and watched the fireworks, but Prae was first. She turned my way and her jaw dropped, instantly standing and running toward me to throw her arms around me. The tears from my eyes had stopped now, and my heart was just billowing with joy. We had done it. We had finally defeated the Enderdragon. It was all over. And we embraced together, knowing that we had finished our goal.

All through the night, everyone partied. It was wonderful, finally having an organized civilization without the threat of annihilation. At last, when the crowds had been steadily dying down, I was sitting next to Prae on the wooden dock. Our legs were in the water, and we watched the night sky hanging over the ocean.

"That was simply amazing," Prae breathed, turning to me. "That whole ride, all of it. It almost disappoints me that it's all over."

"Not me," I replied, continuing to stare at the sea. "I could use a vacation from all the fighting. I haven't had a night of real rest in over a month now."

"Well, surely you must feel rested now. I mean, you're physically that of a newborn child, except you're already grown up," Prae smiled.

I shrugged at this comment. "Still, I've learned a lot. It's nice to just rest for real, and not through some kind of death." And it was then that I saw it, walking under the lighthouse with the glowstone light in it. There was a silhouette of an Enderman there, staring out at us, and if I stared hard enough, I could see the purple glow of its eyes. But it didn't look aggressive. It looked lonely, wanting to be part of the celebration. But all it could do was stand.

I looked up at the nighttime sky. The Endermen had told me, along with Notch, that the Enderdragon would be back at some point. I prayed that this wouldn't happen in my lifetime. Having to fight the Enderdragon again would be a nightmare. But just in case, I would enjoy this peace while we had it for certain. Just in case.


	41. Epilogue - And So Forth

**Epilogue**

**And So Forth…**

_i. Alex Glowstone_

The wind whistled through my ears. The waves of the ocean crashing into the bay of Novum Eboracum added to the deafening noise, along with the sound of the crowds of people in the city, bustling around to different shops, minding their own business. It was my time to rest, so why wasn't I hanging out at a bar? Then again, I didn't want to try the hard cider and wheat ales that served as alcoholic drinks for people as soon as the turned fourteen. Instead, I would rather have drank milk or just water. Maybe even apple juice. So a tavern wasn't for me.

Well, what about shopping? Since Novum Eboracum had risen from the ground, there were many different goods and services being offered to the public. Just because I was elite in a way didn't mean that I couldn't go to normal public establishment, did it? Well, the truth was that I didn't need to go shopping because there was absolutely no need to. I had the best armor there was, I had the strongest weapon in Monarch, and I had plenty of food and crafting supplies. So window shopping was out of the question.

Instead, I stood on a small patch of grassy land underneath the lighthouse, on the light side. It was the afternoon now, so the sun was setting on my side of the structure. The heat of it wasn't as intense as it usually was this time of year, but that was just because there were quite a few clouds in the sky. The alchemist weather reporters that were part of the daily newspaper had predicted rain to begin falling at about four o' clock. I checked my watch. Three thirty.

It was July 24th, almost a month since I had defeated the Enderdragon and in turn been reborn. The city had stopped growing at its remarkable pace, since it would've been hard not to have reached the town after over a month of its existence. Still, there were was the small trickle of three to five new people coming in every day, but the average was slowly falling. I supposed that that was a good thing. I had come to learn I had a slight case of obsessive compulsive disorder when it came to the organization of streets. And what was in my toolbelt at any given time. If I didn't need it, then why should it be there? Whereas other people would cram their pockets with blocks of cobblestone and wood when there was no use for it at the moment.

It wasn't my right to judge others for that habit, though. After all, I tried to convince myself, the only reason that the subject ever came up inside of me was because I would begin thinking about my own problems. There weren't that many problems to have these days, since the Endermen had been neutralized. Literally, neutralized. They were practically our friends now. Of course, the rare occurrence where one of them actually showed up was brought up with celebration to see them, as they were the only mob that really had any intellectual level other than humans themselves. Then again, only I could understand them.

They didn't show up often. The Endermen seemed to like to keep to themselves in the wild, and surely a city as big as ours was a little bit threatening to them. The farms on the outskirts were now within the city, the outskirts of the city now threatening to push beyond the forest. It expanded along the coastline of the water, as well. We were making plans to create huge buildings, ones as tall as the Royal Guardsmen's building in Imperial Plains except multiple ones of that height, maybe even taller and more magnificent. It was quite the architectural phenomenon. Skyscrapers, someone had called them. "So tall that they literally scraped the confines of the sky, even the anvil limit," the same man had proposed.

I didn't mind that they refused to stay within the confines of the city for longer than a couple minutes. Their black, tall bodies brought back too many bad memories for me. When people saw them, though, they regarded them with interest, trying to communicate with them. I never really understood why they even try, after all. What could you possibly say to the Endermen, anyways? 'Hey, thanks for being here for us, oh, the whole trying to destroy us all thing, yeah, we forgive you for that.' I mean, there was nothing positive to say to them, and you can't even understand their responses.

Still, there was something inside of me that liked to see the Endermen turn up every once in a while. I guess I had the same feeling as the others, except mine was a little bit more controlled when you talk about how much I felt about the subject. I had a lot to thank them for, after all. They had given me life when I thought it was impossible for me to walk around with a body any longer, and they had proven me wrong. Consider it that they are paying me back after destroying civilization, I told myself. And truth be told, that was how I envisioned the Endermen to be thinking about it, but there was no way that I could say for sure.

For now, I was standing under the lighthouse pointlessly. I had walked out of my house after eating lunch and had come straight here, although I didn't know why. It was just a subconscious decision, nothing that was really a big deal. I had just done it for the sake of doing it, I suppose, and now I watched the waves of the ocean stretch to the shore of the mainland.

"Mind if I join you?" a female voice said, and I turned to see Prae standing there. She was striking without even trying, I realized for the millionth time. Her brown hair fell around her shoulders, the silver streaks standing out and highlighting it all. Her eyes twinkled without sunlight to reflect off them, just doing it natural. And her clothes, they made her look even more beautiful wearing her green dress. Her bare arms showed off her markings from being a Fortifier back in Magnam Civitatem, the white designs spilling over her skin.

I uncrossed my arms and held one out to her, and she stepped into it. I brought her in closer, my right arm wrapped around her as her head slumped against my shoulder. We were still going as strong as ever as a couple, and it was hard not to be after all we had been through together. My feelings about her were growing every day as I spent more time with her doing things that actual boyfriends and girlfriends did together instead of traveling through cities, trying to save the world from a supernatural threat.

"Its beautiful out there, isn't it?" she commented, pointing out at the open water. "There are endless possibilities to what one can find out there. I'm sure that the Temple of the Overworld was just scratching the surface."

I laughed a little bit, not shifting my gaze from the waves as they pounded the shoreline. "I certainly hope not, myself. I could go for a break from all of the exploring. Defeating the Endermen was certainly enough for me, if I must say so myself," I replied, trying not to visualize us heading out to the open water above the S.S. Wolfpack again. That had been a somewhat disaster, considering Jessica dying during that trip and the Endermen attacking us using a storm.

"Alex, its July, for Notch's sake. The Imperial Battalion hasn't done anything since late June except for making political decisions for the city. Don't you want to go on some kind of adventure soon?" Prae suggested, turning to look at me now instead of the water stretching out for miles in front of us.

I shrugged, biting my lip as I thought about it. Now that she was mentioning it, it was getting a little bit boring to be sitting around Novum Eboracum. Thre was an empty feeling inside of me, and I hadn't really known what it was signifying. This morning it didn't feel as intense as normal because of staring out at the sea that stretched out before me, but I could still feel it. Thanks to Prae, I realized what it was. A lack of adventure.

"I guess you're right," I shrugged, biting my lip out of habit. "But what could we do? There isn't anything for us to do now that the Endermen have been defeated. The world is just wide open, and there isn't anything hostile out there..." As the words kept coming out of my mouth, the more I realized what the answer was. There was so much land to explore out there, and expansion from Novum Eboracum could accomdate other travelers and survivors. It would create more trade opportunities, and we could expand our presence. We could make our own empire in the new Minecraftia, and it would all be for the best.

The prospect of creating a new Minecraftia looked great in my eyes, but what about my heart? The truth was, at some point I just wanted to settle down with Prae and start a family. After all, there were surely enough people in the city at this point for the ratio to be in favor of at least one or two of them having some political experience. It would only be right for someone like that to take up a position that we didn't want to hold anymore.

In reality, though, I knew the truth that the people of Novum Eboracum wouldn't want me to ever step down. I was too powerful of a figure to just be disregarded and replaced by someone. They would have big shoes to fill. I didn't want to sound self centered or something, but that was just the cold, bitter truth. And even some people would accept that as a great prospect, to be a really important political figure. But I didn't want to fight great threats like the Endermen unless it was becoming absolutely necessary. Expansion, though, could do me well. We could clear out an area, find more survivors, start more cities, create sporting events like the ICCs, the possibilities were endless. And it all started with a little bit of trust in the ones we loved. I turned to Prae. "Let's do it. Rally the Imperial Battalion. It's time I used Monarch again. It must be dusting up."

She kissed me on the lips and continued on, walking through the city streets to alert the person who operated the noteblocks atop the town hall that would alert the town of a meeting. I raised my hand in goodbye as she walked away and looked back out at the water. It was quite a sight, the blue ocean that stretched on endlessly. I was sure that there would be another continent on the other side of the water. For now, though, we would have to explore our own. After all, no one had ever crossed the huge range of mountains to the other side of the continent. Maybe there was some other civilization out there, one that hadn't been effected by the Raid of the Endermen. It seemed unlikely, but you could never know unless you tried to discover the truth.

I sighed, heaving my shoulders to get the slight jitters that were pestering inside of me out of my system. I didn't like being unnaturally tense. The feeling made me even more tense, which in turn just got me all crazy inside. Breathing slowly, I felt a small drop of water splash on my forehead. The rain was beginning. I glanced up at the clouds above me. They were indeed darkening, showing clear signs of the rain that the weather reporters had predicted. I checked my watch. Three forty five. A small thing of simplicity.

As I turned away from the water, I remembered that it would be the last thing of simplicity for a while since I was going out on another adventure. Even though one might think that that was a good thing, simplicity was nice. A virtue for me, one might say. But that was about to be gone. All is for the best, I figured. It would just have to do.

_ii. Markus 'Notch' Persson_

Notch was breathing easy for what seemed like the first time in ages. The world had been falling apart around him for months, and now that he was sure that the Endermen weren't hiding anything after almost a month, he knew that Minecraftia was safe once more. That was a relief to say, considering that the constant threat of the Endermen had been nagging at him for so much time that the relief of them being defeated washed over him with surprise. It wasn't like he had been expecting Alex to defeat the Enderdragon so easily. He had always had faith, and especially had been hoping for the most positive result, but it was surprising how smooth it went.

Well, Notch scolded himself, his son dying and then being reborn couldn't exactly be called a smooth exit to the Prophecy of Minecraftia, but it was effective enough. Alex was ultimately alright in the end, and he was fine, along with the rest of the Aether. There was only one thing left for Notch to finish in order to tie up loose ends. He had to figure out what to do about the DEFCON sign.

It had always aided him in making some sort of organized way in showing the danger level of the world around him. But now that the Endermen had been neutralized, he wasn't sure where to put it. Most commonly, when Minecraftia wasn't under a threat, the sign would be lit up at DEFCON 5, the lowest level. He had moved it up to DEFCON 2 once the Endermen had reached the peak of their strength, and had moved it back down to DEFCON 4 as a precaution once the Enderdragon had been defeated. That was where it rested now. Notch wondered if he should move it down to DEFCON 5 yet. It seemed like a good time, considering that it had been quite a while now since the Enderdragon had died. Notch stroked his short goatee, wondering what the best option would be. He even considered just taking it down completely.

No, he knew that he shouldn't take the entire thing down. It was symbollic, detailing hard times that Minecraftia had gone through. And now, especially after what was arguably the greatest trial that his people had ever gone through, he knew that it wasn't something just to be thrown away. So Notch went up to the electric keypad and dialed in some numbers. The red four on the screen changed to a five. That was it. He was completely done with this mess.

In truth, the threat of the Endermen had always been there throughout the time that Minecraftia had existed as a real world. The beings had been in the code, always staying in the End. The dimension itself was too hard for Notch to completely delete from the world before he made it into the experiment that it was now, and so the Enderdragon and the Endermen had been trapped there for years. He had no idea how else he could possibly contain them any other, more efficient way. That would just to do, he figured.

It was just a matter of the Enderdragon becoming powerful enough to reanimate the three standard strongholds in the Overworld to create a way for the Endermen to begin their assault on all of Minecraftia. It had somehow found a way to do that, obviously, and everything had gone downhill from there. The Endermen had broken loose in the Overworld under the Enderdragon's command, and had started making the normal hostile mobs into mindless slaves. Well, Notch figured, they had always been mindless anyways, wanting nothing in the world except to somehow find a way to destroy the common people. No, the Endermen in reality had turned them smarter; they had made them into slaves of strategy, able to actually attack using more efficient methods then the traditional hunt and kill.

Notch felt at ease now that they weren't a threat anymore. It was great that Minecraftia had nothing to worry about that wasn't normal. Of course, the people of his world still had to fight off the hostile mobs such as creepers and zombies, but that was just standard. The Endermen could practically be viewed as friends at this point. They weren't exactly passive, but it was hard to get in a fight with one anyways since they just teleported away once they were in sight. So they weren't a problem at all.

In turn, Minecraftia was now a relatively safe place. The people would have to restructure themselves in the new society that was the aftermath of the Raid of the Endermen. Notch was surprised to see the growth of Novum Eboracum to have accelerated so much. He knew that people would flock there, as it was the only main civilization point on the western side of the mountains that blocked off the east side of the continent from the west.

The civilizations to the east of the mountains were the biggest secret that Notch could keep, and he had done it successfully for years. The truth was that in the Creeper Wars, two armies had battled each other while both opposed the mountainous amounts of creepers as well. Common belief was that the Union had slain off all of the others and set up the cities of Mt. Wolfpack, New Copenhagen, and Imperial Plains. It was true that the Union had won, but the Allies, the other side in the war, had actually fled over the mountains. What the western civilization considered the fabled far lands, no one had ever tried passing through them. Thankfully, Notch thought. If the two sides were brought together again, the war would be devastating.

What Notch found odd that past the mountains was some natural boundary of sorts. All three of the strongholds were on the western side, so they had not fallen to the Raid of the Endermen. The truth was that they were prospering even better than ever. But the Endermen not attacking wasn't half of the mystery. No, there was much, much more.

By some phenomenon, where the mountains were was a huge netherrack in the Nether, completely sealing off fast travel between the two. The wall was literally dozens of blocks long. It would take days to mine through it, and besides, no human had ever reached it on either side. And in the Aether, there was a huge gap between islands so that one couldn't even see the other side. Notch had always stayed on the western side of the dimensions, as did Herobrine, but the people in the east worshipped him just the same. They just couldn't meet him.

If war did break out between the two nations, it would be catostrophic. Notch had taken as many precautions as he could to try and prevent that from happening, but he knew that it was very much possible. And that was just one major subject for him to be worrying about.

The Enderdragon would be back, Notch knew, but it would be a very long time. It could be decades, or even centuries. And when it did come back, it would go for Earth. Somehow it would find a way to, Notch was sure of it, it was only a matter of time, after all. For now, Notch would have to begin taking the precautions to prevent _that _from happening as well. The world was a fragile place, and Notch knew that it would destroy itself again. It had happened before, and it would happen again. Notch just had to find a way to minimize those problems' probabilities.

For now, though, Notch could rest. The Enderdragon was defeated for now, so Minecraftia was as safe as it would be.

_iii. Enderman Milo_

The aftermath of the Enderdragon's reign over all of the Endermen was hard on the latter. The cave system in the large island in the End that served as their home was trashed, turned into a huge military fort for the Enderdragon to begin rebuilding its power through. It was hardly the home that it had been for the Endermen before since the Enderdragon had flown in from through the dimension a couple of months ago. Apparently it had just been wandering around the End for years since Minecraftia had been created into a real world until it had finally found them now. Milo suspected that it would rebuild its power at some point at one of the other two islands in the End at some point, but it would be a long time before it was able to locate one of them. There were three islands, and one of them was now safe because they had survived the Enderdragon's trials; Milo's island. The others were vulnerable, and as long as there was one left, then there was another stronghold in the Overworld that it would be able to invade through.

Milo's people were safe now, and would be able to roam the Overworld freely without Minecraftians trying to kill them. They were practically their friends, for Notch's sake. The only problem was that they would never actually be able to live amongst them; the wounds would be reopened surely, and it disappointed Milo.

Personally, he had found Alex to be a very interesting person. He had been one of the many Endermen that had been assigned to study him as he ventured across Minecraftia, which he had preferred over having to fight him. There had only been a couple of Endermen that had been assigned that job and actually survived. But through his studies, he had found that Alex had incredible fighting skills; ones that weren't learned, ones that just came naturally. He was one of those people that you assumed would be able to do a lot of damage with a simple wooden sword. Using a diamond one, he was extremely deadly.

But it wasn't just the fighting skills. He was simply a good person to his friends, caring for them physically, mentally, and emotionally throughout all of their struggles in order to defeat the Enderdragon. Milo figured that that was what he should call it, a struggle against the Enderdragon and not the numerous Endermen. In truth, the Endermen were good people that had just been controlled at the moment by the Enderdragon, so it wasn't their fault that they had been fighting the Minecraftians relentlessly.

Most of the Endermen found that the period of time that they had been enslaved under the Enderdragon a little foggy when it came to memory. The Enderdragon had cast some sort of spell that didn't allow them to collect any memories from the experience, and for most of the Endermen, that was a welcome fact. Most of them would have been saddened by seeing what the had done anyways, Milo figured. But of course, Milo was different.

For some reason, he and Cosmo had remembered every bit of the time that they had been under the Enderdragon's command, and for that reason, he knew a lot about what Alex had done over the time for his people. And based on his studies and meeting him during his rebirth through the coding, Milo had come to admire him.

Like the Minecraftians, however, the Endermen were disheveled, trying to build their way back up from their community being destroyed because of the war. The droves of the mob species were constantly moving out the war equipment to try and clear out the hallways and rooms so that they could live under there again. Milo, however, was patrolling the island to make sure that there were no events that could threaten the safety of the Endermen. It was an easy job, considering that the End was a very tame place overall.

So Milo had a lot of time to think about everything that had passed over. At this particular moment he was walking past one of the obsidian pillars that the Enderdragon had ordered to be constructed as part of his defense mechanisms. The Ender Crystal that had been on top had been designed to shoot beams of energy to the Enderdragon that would heal it, and without those taken out, it would have been virtually impossible to have defeaten it for Alex Glowstone and company. However, they had found out the secret of it quite quickly and had been able to make quick work of the Enderdragon.

The feeling of loss had been going away for a while for Milo, considering that the groups of Endermen had been making progress cleaning away the underground bunkers for everyday life again. He had been worried for a while that it would be very hard to get anything done with all of the debris, but it had actually gone pretty smoothly over time.

According to the Endermen that sometimes wandered the Overworld for fun, the Minecraftians were getting along finely. In fact, the city that they had built was actually growing steadily to the point that they were considering expanding to make even more cities throughout the Overworld. It didn't necessarily change anything for Milo, it was an interesting fact to keep in mind.

Speaking of the Minecraftians, Milo had been surprised at how calm the other eleven people had been when the Endermen had approached them and explained through signs. They had had to actually write out their sentences in words because they didn't understand the Endermens' spoken language. But they had taken it without a problem, and had hopped through the portal after the explanation detailing that they were safe and that they had accomplished their goal. Milo didn't really care, as it didn't concern him, but he had been surprised. He had guessed that they would freak out if they were approached by what they had just seen as the enemy.

Shivers went through Milo's body every time that he reminded himself that the Enderdragon would be back at some point. Maybe it wouldn't enslave him specifically, but it was still just as much of a threat as ever to the Minecraftians, free Endermen, and those that lived in the Aether as well as the Nether. And the Earth too, but the First Realm had their own problems for now. As the war went on, they would be in terrible shape for an attack from the Endermen.

Milo knew about the next chapter in the story of the Enderdragon; a prophecy that an Oracle had made in Magnam Civitatem before the city was destroyed in civil war, the one that been simply set aside in the back corridors. But just like Alex Glowstone, it had been waiting to be loaded into Minecraftia, created by Notch before Minecraftia had been made into a real steppable land. The Prophecy of the First Realm. Milo knew the day would come that the Enderdragon came back. That would truly be the End.

**And so The Prophecy of Minecraftia ends forever now, completely finished. I hope you all enjoyed the run as much as I have, but now I know that I have certainly set up the sequel. Exciting as this may be, you all have a while to wait. TPoM II's first chapter will be released on January 26****th****, so again, mark your calendars. It will be quite a ride from that point, with more thrills, spills, and definitely more spills than the original!**

** To all of you, I'd like to thank you so much for sticking with me through it all. This has been the very first story that I've ever finished that had actual chapters. I've done short stories and stuff before, but never something of this magnitude. And to all of you, thank you. But like everything, there are many people to thank, and there are a few special acknowledgements that I would like to give out:**

**Those of you who have been reading since the very first chapter was released and never stopped, at least, hopefully: Mellifluousness and Kyanite Archer**

**To my most loyal fans who have been there for a considerably long amount of time: FullMoonFlygon, Mellifluousness, Kyanite Archer, exb756, Sea of Fire**

**For designing and drawing the cover: FullMoonFlygon**

**For winning Original Character Submissions: Mellifluousness, Curtisimo, Shaddow112, FullMoonFlygon, Sea of Fire, Kyanite Archer, ArtisticDeaths**

** Of course, those are just some short honors, but there have been so many more of you who have given your support on all sorts of levels, and I'd like to thank you all. Even though TPoM II won't be out for a while, you can check out the story that I will be uploading shortly: the first chapter to a Call of Duty Black Ops II Zombies Fan Fiction! It will be called 'Carry On', and will center around the four characters from Tranzit. Hopefully you like it, and thanks again for enjoying the ride.**


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